


The Decay of the Blossom 🥀

by FireLinyi



Series: The Decay of the Blossom [1]
Category: GOT7, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: BTS fluff, BTS x Reader, Choi Youngjae - Freeform, F/M, Friendship, GOT7 - Freeform, Im Jaebum - Freeform, Kim Namjoon - Freeform, Kim Seokjin - Freeform, Kim Yugyeom - Freeform, Kunpimook Bhuwakul - Freeform, Mark Tuan - Freeform, Min Yoongi - Freeform, Multi, Park Jinyoungi, Wang Jackson - Freeform, bambam - Freeform, bts - Freeform, bts x y/n, got7 fluff, got7 x reader, got7 x y/n, jung hoseok - Freeform, kim taehyung - Freeform, park jimin - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2019-10-26 22:53:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 66,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17755034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireLinyi/pseuds/FireLinyi
Summary: Y/N’s life starts to change as her mother gets herself a new man after her father’s passing. A new school, a new life. Everything sounds too good to be true. Apparently, destiny has its own rules and that is something she will learn when destiny gives her some sign along her way.





	1. Chapter 1

Y/N is a normal teenager who prefers to stay unnoticed. She could fit in easily, but her wish is to stay away from anyone. She had friends, but lost them by time. Those friends only stayed around to get something, when she was no use to them anymore, the friendships ended. She always thinks that there is only one reason why and she started to think that the reason must be that she is not pretty enough. There are just too many days on which she is reminded that she is not as beautiful as the other girls around her. It was not true, but she starts to believe the voice inside her head more each day. Every girl she compares herself to, every single female body seems to be prettier than she could ever be. That she never had a boyfriend in her life, is like a quite agreeing to her thoughts. It was not painful to be the ghost of the school, it was much more painful to her when she lost her father over a year ago. She remembers it clearly as it just had happened yesterday.  

It was Friday night, her father told her to go out and to have fun. Even if she would just watch a movie, she should enjoy her youth as long as she has it. She lied to him, telling him that the there was no good movie to see in the cinema at the moment. She hugged him and kissed his cheek before she went to her bed room to be alone. She took her headphones from her pillow and turned the music on. Loud music was the silent scream she could not voice. Music was her escape, no matter how bad any kind of situation was, music saved her and took her into another world. She lied there sometimes for hours with closed eyes. As usually she had turned off the bed room light. But that was different that night. Without a warning her door was swung open and the light from the other room shined into hers. Her mother was standing in the door. At first, she thought she might have forgotten a house chore she was supposed to do, but then she saw the tears. She took her headphones down to hear what her mother had to say. But she was not speaking, she was screaming. She yelled at her, she yelled that she was screaming for her for the last five minutes. Next thing that happened was her mother running to the living room. Y/N did not know what to do, her father sitting there with his hand on his chest, painfully speaking to someone on the phone. One sentence she will never forget that her mother said to her, ‘ _How can you ignore your father’s screams?’._  Her mother meant that even a neighbor was standing in front of the door and that the neighbor meant that he knocked at the door. She felt bad for ignoring her father’s screaming and apologized a dozen times. When her father hung up the phone, he said to his wife that they should get to the hospital right away. He did not say what it was, he only said they should drive off right away. Y/N remembers taking her father’s hand and starting to cry that she does feel sorry for not hearing. Her father only told her to stay calm, nothing happened. Everything will turn out alright. She should not forget to lock the door when they left. He kissed her forehead one last time and left. Her mother not even spending a second to look at her. She was too worried what might be wrong with her husband. Y/N did not know at that time that this was the last time she would see her father alive. That this was the last time she touched his hand, the last time she would hear his voice. Her mother returned the next morning with a friend who worked in the hospital as a nurse. She could not answer the questions Y/N had, every single time she said ‘ _dad’_ , it broke her mother’s heart even more. Her mother’s friend explained to her after she took care of her mother, that he won’t return. On the way to the hospital, her father had a heart attack. She had called for medical help as soon as she stepped into the building. A doctor was taking him immediately away from her to treat him, but he had a second heart attack not even long after his medical treatment. This time he did not make it. That was the day her world broke apart. Nothing was as painful as losing him. It took a few months for her mother to get back on her feet. In Y/N’ eyes, her mother was moving on to quickly, but her mother assured her, that she’s doing better. 

A few weeks ago, her mother asked her if it was okay for Y/N if she would date someone again. She only wanted her mother to be happy again, that is why she helped her as often as she could. Of course, she would have nothing against it, since it makes her happy. She taught herself to cook and to bake, so her mother would have less work to do. She also took more and more house chores when her mother told her she needs to take a second job, since she does not earn enough money to pay the bills. Y/N’s birthday was a normal day, no birthday cake and no gifts, not even a happy birthday. Her mother was not at home all evening, she started her third job and was more exhausted than ever. She did not even try to cook herself something to eat, she only went to bed and used her headphones. The new guy on her mother’s side, is a work mate of hers. He was nothing like her father. It was not possible to compare them. She had a weird feeling around him, something about him seems fake. He was nice and tried his best to make her accept him as the new man on her mother’s side, but something told her that he something bad on him. When he changed his job, he moved into another city. They were still meeting at least every weekend, sometimes her mother even stayed during the week at his place or he stayed at her place. 

Now, Y/N was waiting in front of her school to be picked by her mom and her boyfriend. She walked up and down the parking lot but they did not appear. After thirty minutes she decides to walk home since she has missed the bus already. She was walking for at least fifteen minutes before a car pulled over next to her. “Y/N. There you are! I told you to wait at the parking lot.”, her mother says. “Get in. We have a reservation.” Y/N only nods and gets into the car. It was his car and it was an expensive one. She took her book out and started to read. He only says that she is really such a good girl and that her mother raised her well. She does not react to his words and starts to study. “Sweetheart, we are here.” Y/N picks out of the window to see that they have arrived at an expensive sushi restaurant.  

“Are my clothes fine enough?” Y/N says as she looks up and down her school uniform. “I think I am not dressed good enough for a place like this.” 

“No, you look alright. It belongs to a friend of mine. He won’t mind that one guest does not dress up super chic.” He answers as he puts his arm around her mother, Y/N followed them right behind. They seat was placed near the windows. The restaurant was very pretty, but it looked more expensive from the outside than from the inside. When she looks outside, she can see a group of boys. It seemed like they would be waiting for someone, one of them stares at his phone most of the time. When she looks at their school uniform, she can see that they are from another school. One of them has such a beautiful face, it makes her feel weird. Her stomach seems to jump, just by looking at him. When she noticed that the other boys noticed her starring, they pushed that one boy she was staring at to turn to her. Immediately her face starts to blush and she takes one of the menu cards to hide her face with. “Are you alright?” 

“Uhm, yeah. I just would like to know what to order before a waiter appears.” Her mother starts to laugh. 

“Honey, we already ordered for you.” She takes the menu card from her. “My little dreamer. I thought you are not interested in boys yet?” 

“Which boys?” 

“Those boys.” She points her finger in the direction of the door. Y/N turns to see what her mother was talking about. Now, she wanted a black hole to appear underneath her to take her down. The boys from before were smiling at her before they took a table near her. The boys were sitting on a table from which perspective they could watch her, but she could not see them. “Does my daughter become a woman now?”, her mother says with a wink. Y/N shakes her head. 

“No, I am not. I don’t have the time.”  

“Good girl. You are really smart. I knew you know that boys are disgusting, childish and just a heavy stone on your feet when they are teenagers.”, he jokes. Thankfully for her, the sushi was brought to their table and this conversation ended. They started to eat as the waitress brings a glass of coke. “We did not order coke.” 

“I am sorry. But one of the boys said he pays for it, it is for the young lady on your table.” Now, there was no way to hide how red her face has become.  

“Can you tell them, thanks? I do not really know how to handle... You know?”, the waiter starts to grin and says that he will do so. Her mother mocked her with face expressions before they continued to eat their food. 

“Sweetheart, there was a reason why we decided to talk with you in the restaurant and not at home. There is an important reason.” 

“I guess it has something to do with the ring on your finger?” 

“Yeah.” Her mother laughs as she shows her the ring. 

“Beautiful.”, she gets up to hug her mom. 

“I am so happy for you.” Her mother and her fiancé start to exchange looks. She goes back to her seat when she turns her eyes back to her mother. “What’s wrong?” 

“We will move together.” She waited for Y/N’s reaction. As there was no reaction she continues. “Which means you will change the school after summer.” 

“So, my next year in another school, huh? What about the wedding, next year?” 

“You are right about the school. The school ends next week but you still have the summer to say goodbye to everyone before we leave.”, her mother explains. “But you are wrong about the wedding. We will marry during this summer. We don’t want to wait, you know?” 

“I guess I understand.” She takes a sip from her coke. “I am just a little nervous if I have to change the school.” 

“Don’t worry about that. We picked a good school for you together. Those boys are already wearing the school uniform of your new school. So, you already know some people, at least from seeing. Did you see the tall one with the bright shoulders?” Y/N nods. “I already informed myself a bit about the students at that school, he has been the elected representative of the student of their school for the last three years." ‘ _Great, now they know as the strange starring girl from the restaurant. It will be a disaster if they remember me.’_ _,_ she thought. 

“Did you guys find a place already?”  

“Yes, and you will love it. Your room will be bigger and it is in general a bigger apartment.”, her mother tries to cheer her up. “Do you want us to get you some ice cream? I am sorry if you feel overwhelmed, but I decided it was time for our next step.” Y/N smiles and tries to assure that it was okay for her. She had nothing that would hold her here and maybe it would be good to have a change. 

* * *

 

Summer went by so quickly, it did not feel like she would miss her old place as she takes the last pieces to put them into one of the boxes. She would for sure not miss anyone from school and she would also not miss anything within this town. “You’ve got everything?”, her mother asks. She only smiles and puts the last box in the back of the car. For the last time she looks up to her previous home and takes a deep breath. “Oh sweetheart. You can visit this town whenever you like, you know?” Her mother still believed her when she said she had friends, but she never noticed that she was barely outside. She smiles at her mother and gets into the passenger seat. She pulls the window down to feel the wind in her face. It feels like a new start, not just the family life but for her personally too. They arrived on Sunday evening which was the night before her new school year would have started. She does not even take a look at her new bed room, she goes directly to the bathroom to take a shower. She places her school uniform on her desk with barely open eyes. All she wanted and needed was some good sleep. When she switched the light off, she remembered that she did not clean everything from the floor, some boxes must still be around her. Just in case to not kick against those boxes she turns the light on one more time. She tries to scan the room before she turns it off again. Slowly she makes it to her bed, she snuggles into her blanket before she finally falls asleep. 

The sun started to greet her through the window in the morning as her alarm goes on. Sleeping is one of the nicest things for her to do. She took her clothes from her desk and goes directly to the bathroom to get ready. She styled her hair at least three times before she decides to go with a straight hair look. She was not a huge fan of makeup, but her mother bought for Y/N her first makeup and it would make her happy to see her use it. She takes the mascara out of her new makeup bag and puts it on her lashes. As she left the bathroom ready for school, a nice smell of fresh cooked breakfast started to come from the kitchen. She rushes into her bedroom to get her bag and fills it with the most important things quickly and runs to the kitchen. 

“Slowly. Honey, take it slow! There is enough food. I will pack you something for school, okay?”, Y/N hugs her mother tight. “You are really looking forward to school, huh?” 

“I am just happy. You look so happy too. When did we have a warm breakfast like that the last time?” 

“I only made some eggs and toast. Don’t pretend like it was something you never had.” 

“I don’t, but when dad died, we barely had enough food.” Y/N explains while she looks around to find some muffins in the oven. “We only ate cold food or something that we could eat at least for two days from.” 

“Don’t worry. We will not end up like that again. I promise you that.” Y/N takes a plate to place a toast and an egg on top of it. The smell of the muffins in the oven, it smells so delicious. “I already got a call this morning.”  

“A call?”, Y/N repeats with a mouth full of food. 

“I have a new job. I will start next week.” Y/N swallows her food down in one go. 

“I thought he said he does not want you to overwork yourself again? Is it part time?” 

“Yes. We can talk about this later because I only work when you are in school.” Y/N starts to clap her hands in joy. As she finished her breakfast, her mother took the dirty plate from her. “Go, don’t be late on your first day.” She hugs her mother one more time before she grabs her bag and makes her way to school. The school was only thirty minutes of walking and as she was already to early anyway, so decides to take the walk to free her mind a little. The neighborhood looks expensive but beautiful.  She arrives way too early, twenty minutes before her school would even start. To her surprise the school door was not closed so she walks in. She looks around inside the building, she tries to memorize where which class is on which floor is. Her face was definitely giving away that she is the new one in school, but she did not care. This school looks much better than the old one. 

“Don’t use this kind of face around here. I will show you everything you need to know.”, a voice behind her says. She turns around to see the boy from the restaurant in front of her. “Hey, I am Kim Seokjin. Just call me Jin.” She only looks at him without saying a word. “So, what have you seen or not seen yet?” 

“I know who you are.” He looks surprised at her. “Sorry. That came off wrong. I mean your name was on the school website. I have just arrived actually.” A smile grows in his face. 

“Well, I can show you around.” 

“Sounds great.” 

“Do you know someone around here?” 

“No. I have never been in this town before. I don’t know anyone.” 

“Well, if you want to, I can pick you up from your class room and introduce you to my friends. If it is okay for you, I mean they are only boys. We do not have girls as our friends yet, you could be our first.”, he winks. 

“Uh, that’s why you are asking?” Jin nods. “That is not a problem at all. I prefer male friends over female ones anytime.” He looked a bit stunned at her. “That means less drama and more time to study. By the way my name is Y/L/N Y/N.”  

“Nice name for a nice lady. Okay let’s check your schedule for today.” Jin shows her as much as he could in the short time they had left. As there were in front of her class room for the first class, a familiar face seems to appear. “Oh, are you also having history class in this room?” He points to the door. 

“Yeah, I do.” He looks at her and starts to smile. “Oh, the sushi girl is in my class?” 

“Did you just call me sush-”, Jin interrupts her. 

“You do not have any respect for others, don’t you?” Jin’s argument was not wrong, but then she remembered where she has seen the other one before. Those two where at the sushi restaurant when she saw the one boy. 

“Of course, I know politeness. Hello dear, I am Jungkook and this is Yugyeom.”  

“Please be kind to Y/N. She will be eating lunch with us later.” Jin says goodbye to them and walks off. Jungkook opens the door for her and rushes in right after her. 

“No need to rush, Kook. The school is not over that soon.”, Yugyeom says as he shakes his head. 

“We need to find a place with her in the middle.” They find a place with three empty chairs but apparently one place was already taken and Y/N gets up immediately. “Where are you going?”  

“This place is already taken, you two can sit together. I will find a place to sit.” Two rows behind them are two sits left to take. Each table had four chairs next to each other. Between those and the other four sits was a possibility to walk between the tables. Yugyeom immediately turns to their class mates in the row behind them to exchange the seats to sit closer to her. After a few minutes they agreed to exchange. “I will not get rid of you two, huh?”, she says with a grin in her face. 

“Nope. You won’t.”, Jungkook assures. Yugyeom hits Jungkook on his shoulder. “Ouch?” 

“Where’s Bhuwakul? Have you seen him?” Jungkook shakes his head. “I hope he is only late. I really thought we would stay in the same class together again.” The school bell starts to ring and a teacher starts to come in. The teacher looked like one of those teachers who were strict but also those who made their bad jokes every now and then. Everything has become quiet immediately until the door got opened with a sudden move.  

“I am so sorry. I was...” The boy looks as he just finished a marathon. “I...” 

“Nice to see some students do not change over the summer. Mr. Kunpimook, take a sit and be quiet.” 

“Thank you, sir.” He starts to look around until he sees Jungkook and Yugyeom hiding their smiles behind their hands. “Really childish to laugh about that.”, he whispers. When he sits down, he does not spare a look at her. “Guys! Stop laughing it is not funny.”  

“What’s funny is, that you did not see our new girl. Even though you see every girl within a second.” He looks confused about what Yugyeom just told him. He starts to point at Y/N. “Her name is Y/N. Jin said she will hang out with us at lunch.” 

“Oh, sorry. Yeah, you heard my name. Just call me BamBam.” As she tries to answer him, he showed her a sign to give him something. “I told you my name, now I give you my number.” She is stunned by what he just said to her. Her phone was already in her hands, so she gives him the phone but to her surprise Jungkook and Yugyeom take her phone too to give her their numbers. “If something is wrong, just let us know. I guess we will be project partners then since Kook and Yugyeom work as partners all the time.” 

“Are the four in the back also paying attention or do I need to write down that you four are not here?” They mumble their apologies and try to focus on class. “Ms. Y/L/N, I have seen your grades. They were very well. I expect you to continue your studies as you did in your old school?” She only nods as he starts his class. ‘ _If they are friends of this boy at the restaurant, will he also be at lunch?”,_ she asks herself. She starts to blush and hears someone breathing hard for holding back a laughter. When she looks to her left, she can see BamBam points at her.  

“What?” 

“Nothing.” he starts to look at another direction before Yugyeom, who sits in front of her turns to him. He leans a bit forward before he looks at her one more time. “Someone is having a crush. Look at her face!” 

“BamBam, shut your mouth before the teacher looks in our direction again.”, she whispers. 

“I cannot wait to figure out who it is.” He shakes his head. “I like you already. I think we will become good friends.”, he smiles as he takes his notebook out to take some notes. When he looks to her side one more time, he sees the many notes she has taken already. “Do you need that many notes?” 

“Well, if you are my partner for future projects and you were already late on our first day of school, I guess the most work will be on me.” He looked at her with a funny face. She holds her hand in front of her mouth and tries to keep her eyes on her notebook. The rest of the class will for sure not be boring. 


	2. Chapter 2

Lunch could not come soon enough for them. When the school bell filled the class, everyone jumps from their seat to get to the cafeteria as fast as possible. The only one still sitting and packing her stuff was Y/N. Jungkook and Yugyeom were ready to go, but instead of walking ahead, they start to joke about BamBam being late again when they decided to wait for her. “If you want to go, you can go ahead. Jin said he would be waiting for me anyway.”, she says as she still puts her stuff together.  

“No. It is fine. I texted Yoongi that they should save us a spot.” Yugyeom basically could have also talked with a wall. No response or answer comes over her lips nor any other sign from anyone else that they might have heard him. He walks towards the wall to lean against it. “Y/N, what would you like to eat for lunch?”, he says to the wall. She packed the notebook in her bag before she walks to him. She crosses her arms in front of her chest. 

“You truly do not believe that that was funny, do you?” 

“What if I do?” 

“Well, then I guess we will never become friends.” 

“Too late.” She looks at him lightly surprised since she did not think to receive an answer from him. “Be a friend of my friend and you become mine too.” He winks at her. “But maybe we are dating... What do you think?” 

“I think someone let you out of the psychiatry way too early.” She walks pass them towards the door. The other two could not hold their smiles back when they looked at Yugyeom. He looked beaten in his own game. “Hey. It is true that we can really rely on you.” Jin looks into the class with his hands in his pockets. 

“Rely on me? Anytime.” He points to his three friends. “Those? Uh, not really.” He leads her out of the class room with his hand on her shoulder. “It is time to eat.”, he says with a happy voice. “Let’s go.” 

* * *

 

The cafeteria was very light, a lot of things were in white or in a grayish lightly silver color. “Y/N do you need to buy something for lunch?”, BamBam says as he takes his school ID from his wallet. 

“No. My mom packed a lunch bag for me.” 

“Your mom? I started to think that you are cool.” For him and the others it was just a joke, but it was kind of painful to her. She would like to tell them why it is so special to her to eat a lunch from home, but what she worries is that she might be losing them already as friends if they would know about that. For the last year in school she barely ever had lunch, but she does not want everyone to know about the situation she had been in. She only makes a funny face and looks at Jin. 

“Did you bring your lunch too?” 

“Yeah, I did. Let’s reserve a table for us.” They started to look around to find a big empty table as the others walk to the queue. 

“Any rules in this school for which kind of kids sit where?” He starts to laugh at her words. 

“Kind of kids? Okay... Hmm... There, it looks like a table where our rascals could sit at.”, he jokes as they take their seat. She starts to notice the stares from the other school mates which made her nervous. “Ignore them. They are not used to see a girl spending lunch with us.” 

“Is there a reason for it?” 

“You cannot say a specific reason. I guess you will know when you will meet them.” 

“Are the others as kind as you or are they such typical douchebags?” Jin could not hold his laugh back as he sees Jungkook to appear first at their table. 

“There is one.” Jungkook looked completely confused on why he pointed at him. He sits down in front of Y/N. She does not understand if he means that he his kind or if he is a douchebag. 

“I saw the others already. They are still standing a bit more behind in the queue.” He starts to eat and Jin hems to get his attention. “Why don’t you eat, Y/N?” Y/N can see two guys walking up behind him as she takes her food out of her bag. One of them had a smirk on his face and winks at her. The other one slaps Jungkook on the back of his head. 

“You rascal!”, he says as he places his food tray next to his. 

“For what was that for?”, Jungkook asks. The boy only shakes his head as Jungkook continues to eat his lunch. 

“I saved a table for us.” This boy looks not the way he behaves. She thought he might be quieter when she took a look at him but it seems like he was not was he seems to be like. “You must be Y/N, right?” 

“Uhm. Yeah.” He smiles and looks at Jungkook with shaking his head.  

“How did you know?”, she asks in confusion. 

“Yugyeom told me to save a table for us, but it seems like Jin did not see me or Mark.” He looks at Jin with an arrogant face. “I’m Yoongi by the way.”, he says as he looks back at her. She responds with a smile but looks away as he smiles back at her. 

“No one told me you saved a table for us.” Jin turns to Jungkook. 

“What?”, Jungkook says whilst chewing on his food. “Yugyeom mentioned something...” 

“He has so no behavior, just like Yugyeom. I still think you are from one family...”, Jin mumbles. He looks in Yugyeom’s direction. He was already flirting with a girl who was also having her first day in this school. But she seems younger than them. “I am Mark. I am sorry you have to be in the same class as them.” She laughs at his words but stops as she sees that BamBam points a finger at her from the distance. He was talking with two other boys who were also looking at her. It was uncomfortable for her, since she only knew that this would be a sign of getting bullied soon. Being bullied would have not been new to her, physical fights would also not be new to her. She only hopes that they will not turn out to be fake friends. They start to walk towards their table. 

“What is his problem?”, she asks as she starts to eat her lunch. The attention was brought to her when the boys notice that she had much less food than anyone else on the table. 

“Toast and eggs?” He points at her food with his index finger. “Toast and eggs for lunch?”, Mark asks. “That isn’t lunch.” 

“Says someone with a slice of pizza and chicken nuggets. You eat so much healthier than me. Maybe I should get my advices regarding diets from you. Don’t you think?”, she says with cockiness in her voice. 

“You are like a snake, do you know that? One moment you think you can come closer, the next moment you try to bite me. Is that your style or do you dislike me?” She tries to answer but he holds his hand up as a sign to not say anything. “Don’t answer. I will figure it out. Makes it more interesting to me.”  

“I think she’s funny.”, Yoongi comments with his eyes on her. Jungkook sees that her headphones are falling out of her pocket when she checks her phone to see why it vibrated. As she tries to pick them up, he picks them up much faster, only to notice it is still plugged into her phone. “What kind of music do you like?” 

“Huh? Thanks. I listen to anything that sounds good to me. I don’t listen to only one genre.” When BamBam and the other two boys were coming closer to the table she notices one of their faces. But when she looks around her face starts to blush.  

“Yes. I knew it was one of them!” BamBam says as he puts his food try down next to Jin. “Is it Jimin?”, he points at the guy with beautiful lips. “Is it Tae?” She could see that he has something about him that makes him interesting. It is very visible that they do not appreciate what BamBam was doing. The gaze she throws in BamBam’s direction made Jin feel very uncomfortable quickly. 

“Nope. I cannot sit between you two.”, Jin says as he takes his tray to sit next to Mark. 

“Come on. You are my project partner, you even said so. Don’t be mad at me.” BamBam looks at Jungkook to get his help.  

“Hell no. I am not getting into this mess.”, Jungkook says with confidence. As Jimin and Tae take their seat her face blushes again when she looks in the direction were both of them were standing at. BamBam does not recognise it this time, he is to focused on his lunch.  

“No one is waiting for anyone anymore, huh? You already finished Kook?”, one of the boys says as he takes his seat. Jungkook only nods and gets a head shake as a response. “Hey. I’m Jinyoung.” 

“I’m Jaebum.” Both start to eat at the same time. “Why can you never wait for anyone to eat at the same time with you?” 

“Food is getting cold by time, you know?” The boys are laughing at his statement. “By the way, has someone seen the others?” 

“Wait. How many friends do you have Jin?”, she asks. “You said boys, but how many altogether?” 

“I asked you if it is okay for you…” He swallows his drink down before he turns back to her. “We are actually a group of fourteen. You will meet the others by time.” Her phone starts to vibrate. When she unlocks her phone BamBam takes it from her immediately.  

“Could you stop taking my damn phone all the time?”  

“Sorry. I needed to make sure that you accept our group chat.” 

“Your what?” She takes a look at her screen and sees the photos and names of Jin and the others, as also those who she suspects to be his other friends. At least now she would know who’s who. “Could you not at least have asked me?” 

“Would you have said yes, if I had asked you?” 

“No.” 

“See. I had no other chance.” 

“You are an idiot.”, she says as she takes her phone back with a smile.  

“I was joking when I said if we were dating, but it seems more it is you two by now.”, Yugyeom says. He did not come with his food tray, instead he leans against the table and pushes Jungkook’s empty plate more in the middle of the table. He sits down on the now empty spot on the table. “You would look cute together, but who was the one you were blushing for?” Jinyoung’s arm stopped his arm in the mid-air as he hears him saying these words. Jaebum realizes the fast stop of his movements and looks around if someone else have noticed it. When he noticed that no one else did, he tries to get his attention. 

“Should I be worried or is everything alright?”, he whispers to Jinyoung.  

“Huh? No, no. I am fine.” He starts to lick his lip before he bites in his lower lip. “I just realized that we have not practiced enough as a group for dance class.” Jaebum nods and looks back at her. She looks a bit uncomfortable but not stressed hanging out with just boys. Her eyes never coming in their direction though. 

“Y/N, if you have time after school on Friday, I could show you which after school activities we have in this school.”, Jin offers.  

“I already checked. I think I will only sign up for one. Otherwise my grades will suffer for it.” 

“Well, you can start with one. You can add another one in the second semester.”  

“Which afterschool activity did you decide for?”, Mark asks. 

“Drama class. I always liked to play different roles, therefore I will try that.”  

“Well, then I guess you should talk more with Tae and Jinyoung. They are doing drama too.” Tae looks up from his plate to nod in her direction. 

“What after school activities did you do at your old school?”, Tae asks. 

“I did not do any. As I said, I will have to see if I can keep my grades up. If I cannot keep them up, I will leave drama class anyway.” 

“Don’t worry. The teacher spoke good words about your former grades. Are you really that good?”, BamBam asks without even looking at her. 

“Well, I did not have any distractions. Therefore, I was studying hard and if you would take more notes in class you would be better too.” 

“Why are you assuming that I am a bad student?” 

“You do not seem like someone who likes school.” Yoongi and Mark start to clap their hands as they laugh.  

“Not even a day here and she knows he hates the school the most.” She looks at Jaebum as the urge to ask him how he meant it becomes bigger but she says nothing and continues to eat.  

“Jinyoung, are you alright? You seem very quiet today...”, Yoongi says. 

“Huh? Me? Nope. I just pray that this school year is easier than last year.” He puts his fork in and out of his cake. “I am not sure if I have gotten better during summer.” 

“Are you still worried about the dance moves?”, Jimin asks as he looks at him. “We are already a semester ahead. By the way, I got the information what the dances will be for this and next semester.” Jinyoung nods but he does not look much calmer. He starts to appear even more nervous. The school bell starts to ring through the room again and she jumps up. “Are you a ninja or something?” 

“She did not jump up for lunch, but she does that for the class.”, BamBam comments. Yoongi gave her a sign with his hand which stays unnoticed by BamBam when he looks at his phone. The next moment BamBam turns his eyes to her, she slaps his upper arm playfully. 

“Careful. If you want, I can make our projects fail easily. Do not play with fire little boy.” BamBam touches the spot she slapped him at over and over again.  

“See, she treats me awfully. All I try is being nice.” She starts to laugh at his word. “What are you waiting for?” 

“I am waiting for you to finally move. Let’s go.” She starts to walk off with Yugyeom who bit his lower lip. It is obvious that he tries to hide a smile. They only stepped away one step as she sighs whilst she looks at his face. “I guess you want to say something?” 

“No. Not at all.” He looks at the others who are waiting to hear him answer her. “I just wanted to ask if you two, I mean... Could it be that you know each other? You are already so close and-”, he stops his sentence without even trying to finish it. 

“Mark was right. Toast and eggs are not really enough for lunch... Maybe I should eat you too.” He chuckles at her attempt to be funny. She looks forward of what to expect, especially because every teacher so far says that they will start the preparing for the upcoming tests already tomorrow, to teach them everything they need for the first upcoming tests. 

* * *

 

After school they walked to the busses together. Jungkook, Tae, Yugyeom and Yoongi are starting to get on the same bus. Jinyoung stops next to her. “Which bus do you need to take?” She looks stunned at him. 

“I am walking home. I don’t need a bus.” 

“Even if it rains?” 

“What for do I have an umbrella if I would not use it on a rainy day?” She smiles at him, he immediately hems. 

“Okay. See you tomorrow then!” She waves him goodbye and starts to walk off. As she walks off, she tries to unravel her headphones. She takes a slow walk as she puts her headphones in her ear. She goes through her fifteen playlists to pick the right one. The music was very loud as usual and she only starts to think about what she wants to tell her mother first. Thankfully the way home was mostly just straight just two turns on the whole way. When she arrives at home, she can already smell the food her mother has prepared. Lasagne, it must be Lasagne. She takes her shoes off and walks to the dining room, just to see her stepfather and her mother sitting at the table.  

“You are home! Let me hug my big girl.” She gets up and hugs her. “Sit down, sweetheart. But wait with your story. Let me know everything that happened today.” She watches her mother running into the kitchen to get the food as she sits down. 

“I hope you like the new school?”, her stepfather asks. Her mother places the food in the middle of the table. It was a simple round table therefore the food was placed centrally.  

“I said say nothing until I am here. What did I miss?” Her mother places pieces of the Lasagne on their plates. 

“Nothing, mom. He only asked me if I like the new school.” 

“And, do you?” 

“My school mates are very nice so far.” 

“Did you meet someone already? Potential friends?” She starts to laugh at her husband’s words. 

“Babe. Please, give her some time. My butterfly always needs time to find some friends.” 

“Your butterfly? She is stronger than a butterfly. For sure even more clever than one too.” They turn their bodies to her.  

“I actually made some friends today. At least I think so.” Her mother raises an eyebrow. 

“That’s good. I am proud of you.”, he says before he turns to his plate to start eating. The rest of dinner was very quiet. After her third plate, she excused herself to leave the table. “Put your plate in the dishwasher. I turn it on after your mom cleaned up.” She puts the plate away and gets herself ready for bed. 

* * *

 

It was already late when she wakes up with her headphones on. She looks at her phone to figure out it is already ten at night. Her phone needs to be charged so she plugs it into the socket. The backpack caught her attention, almost automatically she takes her notes out and starts to read through them. One of the things she noted is that they will write an essay about what kind of person they want to become one day or what kind of profession they want to do in the future. She takes her computer and places it on the desk. Immediately she opened the word app and starts to write the headline. She decides to go with who she wants to be one day, because she had no answer on what kind of profession, she would even be able to do. She sits on her computer for almost thirty minutes and stares at the blank document in front of her. It is depressing to her to not know who she wants to be, but one song came into her mind. It was a song about having high hopes for themselves and through every up and down, you should not give up. The dreamer inside her is kind of awaking and she starts to write nonstop. She reads through her just written text just to be sure it made sense. A big yawn escapes from her mouth as she checks the time. It was already one o’clock in the morning as she turns the computer off and unplugs her phone before she would fall asleep. 

* * *

 

“Good morning sweetheart. Do you want some bacon?”, her mother asks when Y/N comes into the kitchen.  

“Bacon and toast?” 

“If you like it, I will make it for you. The toast is already freshly toasted, maybe you start with that first?” 

“Uh, no. I can wait.” She smiles in her direction. She starts to play with her sleeve whilst she bites her lip. 

“Okay. Speak, what is on your mind?” Y/N looks up and shakes her head. “I know you to well to ignore that sign. What’s wrong?” 

“I know you want me to do good in school and that my grades stay good. But I want to try drama class.” Her mother puts her hands on the edge of the kitchen counter and lowers her head. 

“Honey, I thought you might want to. I talked with your father already, he wants you to only focus on the classes which are important. Drama does not count as an important one.” 

“If I only do it, let’s say three months? If my grades are getting worse, I will quit drama earlier than three months.” Her mother sighs as she puts the bacon on the plate to hand it to her daughter. 

“I want you to try new things, but he will not be happy when he figures that out.” 

“Just three months, mom. Please, let me try it! Maybe I even suck and I get thrown out anyway.”  

“I have to say no, honey. I am sorry, I know you want to but you know one of the house rules are that he has the last word in everything, especially regarding your school activities since he pays for your bills.” 

“Is that why you are working when we are not home? So, he doesn’t have to know?” She puts her head down again before she looks back at her daughter. 

“I understand that he wants to be the man in the household, but I just can’t stay at home twenty-four seven.” 

“So, I can do drama?” She nods.  

“No word about my job and no word about drama, okay?” 

“Thank you! I give more than one-hundred, no. More than two-hundred percent at school.” She hugs her mother as she looks for her lunch bag. “No lunch bag today?” 

“No. He already paid the bill for this month, you can have lunch at school. You have a barcode on your ID, show it to the lady in the cafeteria, she can see on the barcode if the lunch is prepaid or if you have to pay for it.” In that moment she realized that she forgot to pick up her ID card. She starts to get her breakfast down as fast as she could. “You should get up earlier if you eat your breakfast like that.” 

“No, it is not like that. It is just that I remembered I did not pick up my ID card.” She grabs her bag and gets her shoes. “Bye mom! See you later!” Her mother laughed at her stressed-out daughter as she closes the front door. Y/N is speed walking by now as she dials Jin’s number.  

“Hello?”  

“Good morning Y/N.” She was not an athlete nor a fan of sport and that is what she has to pay for right now. Her lungs start to hurt and she was out of breath. “Are you running?” 

“Well, not really.” She takes a deep breath. “I forgot to pick my ID card up. Can you tell me where I can pick it up from? I am almost at school.” 

“Firstly, stop running.” She does not stop her speed walking. “Just stand still for a moment.” She stops and bends over with her hands on her knees and takes a deep breath. “So, now that you can listen probably, I am already in school because of some upcoming projects. So, breathe, I get it for you.” 

“You can get it for me? I thought I need to be there personally?” 

“Did you forget that I am the one to rely on? Even the teachers trust me and the lady in there from where you can get the ID card from, loves to hear my compliments. Don’t worry, I’ll get it for you.” 

“Jin, thank you. You are truly an awesome friend, you know that?” 

“Of course. Are you trying to insult me?”, he starts to laugh. 

“Nope. Bye.” Both hang up and she continues her walk. When she walks by the busses, she does not even spare a second to look if one of Jin’s friends would be there. 

“Hey, Y/N!” She turns around to see Yoongi together with Namjoon.  

“Hello boys.” 

“Damn. Did a dog hunt you down the street?”, Yoongi asks. 

“Sorry?” 

“We saw you speed walking and then you stopped and bend over.”, Namjoon explains. 

“Oh, no. I stopped because Jin told me to.” Both looked confused at each other. “I was on the phone with Jin, I used my headphones.”  

“Uh, okay. But why were you walking so fast that you were so out of breath?” 

“I forgot to pick up my ID card, he said he will pick it up for me. I hope I can find him before lunch.” 

“He finds you first.” Yoongi points to the one of the benches. “Speaking of the devil.” Jin already got up and walks towards them. 

“Here you are.” 

“Thank you so much Jin! I owe you something for that.” 

“Not at all. I like to help and I was already on my way out to wait for you all.” 

“My favourite project partner is already here.”, BamBam says with a full joy voice as he walks up to her.  

“Brave. You come without your securities?”, she says to make fun of him. 

“Jungkook and Yugyeom worked out before school therefore Yugyeom’s dad will drop them off at school.” 

“I still believe they are from the same family. Maybe just cousins...”, Jin thinks out loud. 

“This theory will be with you forever, huh?”, Namjoon jokes. “Bam, you are here way earlier than usual. Are you trying to impress someone?” 

“Hey, I can be on time, okay?” 

“Yeah. Of course, how could I forget.” Namjoon looks at her before his eyes turn to Jin. “Shall we wait for the others or shall we walk in already?”  

“No. I want to get inside.”, Y/N says. As they start to walk towards the building, they can hear running footsteps behind them. 

“Wait for us!” When she turns around, she can see Mark together with Youngjae. “Not our fault. The bus was late.” The others nod as they keep on walking. 

* * *

 

“Welcome to our first drama class of this year.”, her drama teacher says. There were not many kids in drama, what is also very clear to see is that there more boys than girls. 

“He tries to be funny, but he is only funny when he tries not to.” 

“Tae, I think I have him also in another class.” 

“Might be the case. Each teacher in this school teaches multiple classes, so don’t be so surprised about it.” 

“We have three new students in drama this year. Please make sure that they do feel comfortable and support them with help if they feel more comfortable asking you instead of me. As I can see, Mr Park and Mr Kim. You two stand already together with a new student between you, may you want to help her to prepare for the audition in our first play of this year?” 

“Sure. We are her friends anyway.”, Jinyoung declares. 

“That is great. Than you will audition with her for the play?” Jinyoung starts to stutter. “Perfect. If you should do well in the audition and get the main role Ms Y/L/N, I might consider taking one of your friends as the male character.” 

“What kind of play will we be auditioning for?”, Y/N asks carefully. 

“A summer love story. We have four months before the play will be happening at the school festival. The audition will be next or maybe in two weeks. Let’s see how good the new ones are.”  

“Don’t worry about the kissing scene. They are staged well it will only look like it is a kiss from the view of the audience.”, Tae says as he puts his arm around her shoulder and the other one in his pocket as he looks at Jinyoung. 

“I hope you will be okay. But I guess the teacher is right. It might be better if you get this role, to play with one of us as the male lead.”, Jinyoung says. It makes sense to her, but to play lovers on stage and be friends off stage sounds weird to her. 

“Okay let’s start our class.” The others start to clap their hands and teacher gives out the paper. “This class will be about pronunciations. Last year I heard some, just little mistakes. We will work on that first this year.” Her nervousness disappeared slowly but started to appear when Jinyoung smiled at her. “MS Y/L/N, please be our first since you have the attention from one of the best, we have in drama.” Y/N can hear Taehyung’s whisper to Jinyoung behind her back and both start to break into laughter. “What is so funny?” 

“Sir, may I can suggest that they show it first? Since Tae just said that they are the best in drama.” Tae looks stunned at her as Jinyoung starts to blush. 


	3. Chapter 3

The days went by so fast and before she even recognized it, she was in the school for three months already. Her friendship with the boys has gotten better and she got invited to their parties, but she always declines it. They also invited her to go with them to the bowling hall but she also said no to that invitation, after a while they stopped asking her to hang out with them. This time at lunch they are trying to ask her again one more time. “Guys, for the last time. Thanks, but I’d rather study. There is so much I have to learn!”, Y/N says slightly annoyed. The upcoming essay is making her nervous. She tries to focus on the notes in front of her, but the boys keep on trying to talk her into a hang out on Friday after school. They are too loud and too distracting, which makes her even more nervous that she might not be able to do a good job on the essay. 

“Well, then we will meet up to study together then?”, Jungkook suggests. “At my place?” 

“Yeah, that sounds great. Your parents work late which means we could watch a movie or play the new game that I got from my dad last week.”, Yugyeom adds. 

“The one you talked about?” 

“Is there any other game I have been talking about since it came out?”  

“Deal.” 

“Sounds good and all, but I do not know how my parents will react when I tell them I am the only girl there. They don’t even know you.” 

“Uh, damn. I always forget about that.” BamBam says as he shakes his head. “We can meet at your place then, right?” 

“I will have to ask first. I don’t know if they are okay with that.” 

“Then do so. Call them!”  

“Yugyeom, they are at work.” Y/N bites her lips as she looks up from her notes. “But I will ask them after school.” 

“Guys, don’t be so rude to her. We can also meet up at the library.” Namjoon wants to take the pressure off her that the others have created. “You had friends over before, right? I mean from your old school.” 

“Actually, no. I never found the time to do so.” 

“You and studying. You should marry a book, maybe a wise walking book like Namjoon.” Mark jokes, but his joke was not taken well by her and she has enough. She starts to pack her notes into her backpack. “You should learn to not take everything so seriously, don’t you think?” She becomes quiet and says nothing as she walks out of the cafeteria. Y/N does not look back as she already planned which room she could study in quietly. The study room is always empty at lunch break. Nobody would have been there since the room is mostly used after school and at least for a few minutes she could try to go through her notes but to her surprise she sees Jin, Yoongi and Youngjae in there.  

“What are you guys doing here?”, Y/N asks with a smile on her face. 

“Well, we were actually talking about the school festival. I heard you have a role in the upcoming play, is it true?”, Jin asks. 

“It is not official yet.” She takes a seat next to Youngjae as she takes a look on his paper. “Is this supposed to be the stage?” 

“Yeah. It is not finished yet, but since it is a summer play, I thought I could add a few more ideas.” 

“It looks cool. Somehow, I wish I would not get the part.” She leans back and looks at her knees. “It truly became so stressful. I don’t know how others do that, but I will quit drama.” Jin gets up and holds his hand against her forehead.  

“Are you sick? Is a fever taking over our friend?” She takes his hand off her head and gets up. “Where are you going?” 

“You guys need the room and I need silence to read through my work before I write it down as my essay.” 

“So, we’ll meet on Friday at your place?”, Yoongi asks. 

“Who told you that? Nothing is official yet. I have to get an okay from my parents first.” She shakes her head as she leaves. She only walks a few steps before she stops as she sees that Tae is running up to her. 

“There you are!” Tae smiles at her and hugs her tight, almost too tight. He was out of breath from running and obviously more than happy. “God, you are sometimes hard to find. Even though there are not many places you could be at.” 

“I cannot breathe.” 

“Sorry.” He put his hands on her shoulders and looks deep into her eyes. “Honestly. Are you ready for what I will tell you?” 

“How can I be ready for something you will tell me, if I have no clue what you are about to say?” 

“Right.” He chuckles. “You and Jinyoung. You play the main characters in the play!” Her face looks blank and her eyes are searching for any kind of sign which would show that he was joking within his face. “Why are you not smiling? You should be happy!” 

“I am not happy. I wanted to tell the teacher that I will quit drama today.” Tae looks dumbfounded at her. 

“You are one of the best girls we have in our drama class. You cannot just quit. I refuse to accept that.” 

“Refuse it as much as you want to, but I have class with our teacher soon. I will inform him about it then.” 

“You want him to play the part with ‘ _the girl who thinks she is the queen and every walking thing on earth is her slave’_? Do you want to make him go through hell?” 

“I am sorry for Jinyoung, but I have to think about my grades. If you would excuse me, I have to learn for my essay.” 

“Y/N. Before I let you go, one thing. Think about it! You should not back out, don’t you think your parents would be proud to see you performing?” 

“No, they won’t be. Only my mother knows that I do drama and if he figures that out... She only allowed it since I said I will only do it for three months.” 

“Well, when we hang out at your place, we can talk with them. I have to tell Jinyoung about this.” Her eyes widen at his words but before she can say anything he starts to walk away. But stops after a few steps he turns around to her. “Believe me, he will make your parents come to see you perform.”, he says before he starts running towards the cafeteria. The sound of the school bell is reminding her that the chance of learning is over. She takes the notes out of her backpack and starts to walk towards her class. She walks slowly with her eyes on the notes, sometimes she looks up to not bump into someone. The nervousness makes her palm sweat and she hopes to not mess it up. 

* * *

 

“I hope I wrote enough words...”, BamBam sighs. “I tried to get ideas from her text, but she just wrote too much.”, he says to Jungkook and Yugyeom. 

“I prepared myself, you did not. What else do you need to know?”, she mocks him with pure happiness. “I am glad that I remembered so much, even though one or two sentences could have been added.” 

“I am glad when I pass.”, Yugyeom says. When she smiles at him, she could see that the teacher is just about to leave. She jumps up so fast that her chair is falling over. “Hey, be careful! Where are you running to?” Their eyes are following her.  

“Sir. I am sorry, but I would need to speak with you regarding drama if you have a minute for me.” He looks at her surprised since her face looks more sad than happy. 

“Go ahead.” Her teacher takes his books in one hand as he waited for her to speak. She watches a few student leave before she was brave enough to say what she wanted to tell him. 

“I want to quit drama.” Now that she said it out loud to her teacher, her heart is breaking in dozen pieces. Drama was one of the classes she developed a passion about and every time she was in drama class, she felt free. It feels to her as it is another world which takes the pressure from her, but she noticed that it takes a lot time of practicing. Y/N is happy to have these words said because that means that she kept the promise she made to her mom. On the other side, she finally found something which was fun and an activity with her friends. That the teacher says nothing for a moment makes her feel torn if it was right or wrong to do what she just said she will do. 

“I will not lie, but I think you are making a mistake. You are very talented. I barely had students who were acting with so much passion, are you sure, this is what you want?” 

“Yes Sir. I know it might come as a surprise, but I feel like I have to put more into my grades. I have to make more room to learn especially since the next tests are coming up.” 

“I understand you, Ms Y/L/N. I know you have been an A-grade student so far, but you cannot leave drama from one day to another.” She tries to find another excuse to leave, but she still hopes that he will let her leave soon. “As far as I am informed, you would not need to worry about your grades, Ms. Y/L/N.” Her eyes look hopeful, hopeful to hear that she can leave drama. “I can only suggest one thing, you make the best of your role in this play and you can leave afterwards, if you still want to leave. Have you talked with someone else from the play about it?” 

“Only with Kim Taehyung.” 

“I see. You are lucky to have him and Park Jinyoung as your friends. I said it once and I say it again, you three are my aces.” She looks down to the ground. Maybe it is a mistake to give up the only hobby she has but she tells herself that it is alright to give it up. Drama is only fun in school but what for is it good for her future job, she wonders. “As I said, you cannot leave before the play happened. You have to finish what you started. This sentence is very important when you play a character. You will figure out why.” With those words he leaves her alone. She is more than disappointed to not be able to leave drama immediately, at the same time she is happy that she will play the role. Which leaves her confused on how she should feel to have the role but also to quit what she started to love so much. Y/N walks back to her desk only to see that the boys put her stuff in her backpack.  

“Thanks.”, she says as Jungkook gives her the backpack. 

“Why do you really want to leave the drama class?” Jungkook tries to ask as careful as he could. “If you want to let us know of course.” He tries to get his information with puppy eyes. 

“Not that important now, since I cannot leave before the play... Puppy eyes do not work on me. Told you once and I will repeat myself until it is in your brain.” She puts the backpack over her shoulder and looks back at the desk to see if the boys forgot something on her desk. When she sees nothing of her stuff is still lying on the desk, she fakes a smile. “Let’s go. I cannot wait to know what I will have for dinner tonight.” 

“Ay ay, boss.” Yugyeom sings as he starts to dance. 

“You are getting better.” Y/N claps her hands as she walks pass him. 

* * *

 

“Mom? Where are you? Are you home?” 

“Living room!” Y/N walks into the living room just to notice that she was not there. She looks around but she is nowhere to be seen. 

“Mom?”, she says a bit louder when she still cannot see her mother.  

“Up here!” She turns to the shelf to find her mother on top of a bookshelf with a shoe in her hand. Her mother is shaking a little bit but smiles when she looks at her daughter. 

“You know you are not a cat?” 

“Believe me, I know that. Otherwise I would have killed the spider in one go.” The front door closes loudly and her mother tries to walk down the ladder but she was to clumsy and kicks it over. “Honey, sweetheart. Please help me.” Y/N laughs as she takes the ladder to put it back up again. 

“What is going on in here?” Her stepfather looks through the room but touches his face as he sees his wife on the bookshelf. “Is that the reason why we bought such big one? So that you can take a nap up there?” 

“You are so funny!” 

“Did you at least kill the spider?” She looks angrily at him. “I heard spider, so I guess you went for a hunt.” 

“No, but yes. It is still somewhere around here.” He takes the ladder from Y/N to hold it for her. 

“Come down.” He turns his head to Y/N. “Y/N, I brought Sushi. Could you get everything placed on the table?” 

“Sure. I-”, she wanted to say what is on her chest, but she gets interrupted by him. 

“Mon Cherie, come down here!” 

“I am scared of heights! French words will not make it better in any kind of way!” Y/N smiles to herself as she leaves the room. Thankfully she would have not to be the one to take care of her at this moment. She takes the Sushi and places it on the table. “Ouch. That truly hurt!”, her mother mumbles as she walks into the room with one hand in his hand and the other one on her butt. “That is not funny. Not even a little bit.” He could not stop laughing whilst her face looks painful. 

“I told you to look at the ladder when you climb down but you decided to step next to the ladder because you did not want to look. It was just a half meter. Not scary at all.” Y/N sat down whilst her parents are still standing.  

“Don’t you want to sit down?” 

“Your mother cannot sit down right now because of her hurt butt and as the good husband I am, I will also stand while I eat.” If looks could kill both of them would be in a black bag by now because of the sparks in her mother’s eyes. 

“Can I ask you something?”, Y/N asks quietly. She spoke so quietly that it almost sounded like a whisper. 

“Sure. What’s wrong, honey?” 

“My friends were asking all the time to hang out with them but I declined so that I could study. I told them today the reason why I declined and-” 

“If they don’t want to be friends with you because of this, I will call their parents and ask them what kind of mini trolls they have raised.”, her mother says in an angry voice. 

“Mom, relax. Hear me out, please.” 

“Sorry. But it sounded like one of the stories I heard before.” 

“No, you definitely did not hear something similar before. They asked me if we could study whilst we hang out together and a friend even suggested to study at our place. Would that be okay? We thought about this Friday.” 

“Sounds good. Then we can finally meet them.”, her stepfather says with a big smile. “Are they as clever as you?” 

“Well, they are doing good. Not the best but not the worst.” 

“Yeah, nobody is cleverer than our girl.” 

“So, is it okay?” 

“Yes, absolute. I will buy some snacks for your friends tomorrow. Do you want me to cook or do you want to order in tomorrow?”, her mother says with a happy voice. The painful face seems to disappear when she grabs her phone to take some notes.  

“I actually don’t know.” 

“It’s fine. I’ll get some snacks since snacks are never a bad choice.” Her husband nods at her words and looks at Y/N. 

“I am actually against it, since you did not tell us everything.” Y/N startles at his words as his face expression starts to change. “Your drama teacher called me today. To my surprise he meant that you want to quit drama and I tried to explain to him that you only do activities outside of school which helps you for your university whichever it would be in the end. Your teacher also asked me if we told you to quit but I told him that I only know since he called me.” He holds a finger up to his lips for a second before he puts it down again. “He also said you did drama for three months. I think I was clear enough when I said that my word is the last one in this house or didn’t I?” 

“Yes. I know, but I never ask for anything and drama is for free. I only wanted to try it for three months anyway.” 

“You planned to keep it a secret from us for three months? I am really disappointed in you.” He sits down in front of her. “I never thought you could disappoint us, I also thought you would never tell us a lie.” 

“I know you would not be proud. It was getting too stressful lately, therefore I wanted to quit drama even more. That is one of the reasons. The other reason is as I said, three months have passed and I was about to quit anyway. My teacher said I am only allowed to leave after the upcoming play.” 

“I know. He invited me to the play.” He takes a deep breath as he opened his beer can. “I am glad that you realized that drama won’t take you far.” She gets up from the table and throws the empty boxes away. “We will come to see your play. When you only do it once, why should we miss it, right?” He kisses his wife’s cheek before he asks her if she feels better. “Y/N. We will meet your friends this Friday, if they behave well, you can hang out once a week with them as long as your grades stay up. If they drop, I take my words back. Don’t make me regret my friendliness.” 

“Thank you. I will do my best to keep them up. But I don’t think we will hang out very often, probably only from time to time.” Y/N left the kitchen to walk into her bed room, so she could text her friends that the hang out will be at her place. The answers of her friends do not take long before her phone blows up. She takes her headphone and her backpack before she sits down on her bedroom floor. When she unpacks her notes, she can see a note from somebody else.  _‘Don’t stress and give me a better view.-. I don’t know what to write :(.’_ She starts to laugh about it because it reminded her when  BamBam  touched her upper arm to get her attention during the essay. When she did not react, he wrote this note.  The unexpected knock from the door startles her. 

“Come in.” 

“What I forgot to ask, you said friends. Also, the letter ‘S’ after friend... How many are coming?” She hoped he will not overreact once he knows the number. 

“The worst-case scenario would be fourteen.” 

“Fifteen girls in one apartment… Maybe I should let the neighbours know that it will be louder than usual.”, he says as he closes the door behind him. He gives her no time to tell him that her friends are only boys. 

* * *

 

This week was faster over than she thought it would be. This time she decides to take the bus with her friends, which would shorten the time. The tension is building up inside her and the worry how her father will react to her friends being only boys. “Why are you so stiff? We meet your parents.”, Jin jokes. 

“Well, when I asked them if it would be okay to have friends over, he said fifteen girls in one apartment. Which means he does not know that you are not girls. He is also still mad that I hid that I do drama.” 

“Tae and I figured out what we can say to your father. Maybe he will change his mind...”, Jinyoung says. “No one ever said no to my acting.” 

“Well, he was more than happy to hear that I will quit drama. He said that they will watch the play but he was so not happy when our teacher called him on the phone.” 

“Our teacher called your father?” 

“Yeah. That is why he knows about it. He was disappointed that I said nothing earlier on.” She sighs. “Since he dates my mom, he tries to take over my father’s role and be the man in our family.” 

“Wait, he is not your biological father?”, Youngjae asks.  

“No, my biological dad died because of a heart attack.” She starts to play with her sleeve. “He is a bit bossy and everything has to go his way. Mom and I have barely anything to say at home. He decides everything since he is the one who brings the money home.” 

“Well, it will be okay. If he is against us being your friends, I will change my name into Monique.” Everyone starts laugh along Mark’s joke. “I think you are over reacting. Why would he be against it?” 

“He said once that I should only have one or two female friends. Everything else would be a distraction.” She sees the bus is about to stop at their station. “We are here.” She looks outside to find her stepfather at the station.  

“Is that your father?”, Yoongi asks. “He looks okay though.” 

“Yes and no.” When her stepfather sees only boys getting off, he looks at them as if they just came out of prison. He takes a deep breath before he looks at her. 

“These are your friends?” Namjoon tries to speak up but gets shut down immediately. “Boys? I told you to stay away from them, didn’t I?” When Y/N does not answer he takes her by her wrist and steps a few steps away from them. “I asked you a question, answer me.” 

“Could you please not speak like this in front of my friends?”, she says as a tear starts to run down her face. The embarrassment makes her face blush.  

“You all get back on the bus, since I guess you do not live around here.” 

“Sir. I am sorry, but we also planned to go to the park in case-”, Jinyoung gets interrupted. 

“Listen, you boys disappear now. You stay away from her, clear enough?” 

“Please, don’t speak like this to them. They are the only friends I have.” 

“The only friends you have are boys? You should be listening to yourself. I don’t know what is on your mind lately, but you will change that state of mind. I don’t allow it.” 

“You cannot forbid me to choose my own friends. Please, can I just study with them?” 

“Let’s get home, I am more than angry with you and your mother.” Y/N wipes her tears of her face as she looks at him. “You lied about your after-school activity and your mother lied about having a job. I warn you, do not influence your mother with your negativity.” He looks at the boys. “Well, I give each of you one chance. If one of you consider dating her, hurting her or any other thing, out of the friend zone, we will have a not so nice talk.” He takes her backpack and tells them to start walking. The embarrassment was all over her face and the tears did finally stop. Once in the apartment he drags her into the living room. “You boys can go into her room in the meantime. She will catch up with you in a minute.” He shows them the room and tells them again, it would not take long. She can see that he is not so angry anymore. “So, let’s start from the beginning. I told you, I buy you two anything you need. Only rule, I have the last saying in everything because I bring the money home with which I pay our bills.” He puts the backpack down. “You decided to be a part of this drama freak show and wrote two bad grades.” 

“Both were a B. It is not so bad. Some others failed the tests completely.” 

“You are not a B-grade girl. Are you dating one of them?” 

“No. They are just my friends.” 

“Your mother kept a secret from me. I already showed her what I think about it.” Y/N wonders what he means with showing. The confusion was readable all over her face. “If it does not work with only talking and warning, I will become the man I do not want to be for you. Second thing, I talked with your teacher. The play is next month, apparently you won’t be able to attend school, because you will be sick.” 

“But you said you would watch it! I cannot let my friend down.” 

“One of those punks?” He moves his arm quickly and his hand almost hit her face. “I will not punish you as hard as I did to your mom, simply because you are younger and you are able to learn fast.” She watches him leave the room, that is when she sees her mother standing in the door frame. The way she looked shocked her, broke her heart. Her mother has a violet spot underneath her eye, the corner of her lip was bloody which becomes clearer to see as she walks up to her. Her eye color was intense which must mean that she had cried. 

“Mom?” Her voice was shaking and her tears start to fall when she imagined what might have happened to her. “Are you okay?” 

“I am so sorry, sweetheart.” She starts to whisper. “He followed me to work and noted when I left. He picked me up after work today.” She pulls her daughter in for a hug. “I was so angry at him for following me that I screamed at him and before I noticed I told him that you do drama. I had no clue that your teacher had called him by then. We drove to your school when I got into his car. Your teacher was called out and your father yelled at him for not letting you leave drama, but your teacher was stubborn and made him super angry. On the way home he informed me that he saw me going to work for almost every day for the last two weeks...” 

“What? Is this why...?” She points at her hurt eye and her mother only nods.  

“I will discuss those things with you another time. Tell me when you need something or take it from the kitchen yourself. I don’t think your mother should be seen like that.”, her stepfather says. 

“Don’t be so hard on her, she is still a kid. I will put some makeup on, it will look like there is nothing to see.”  

“That is why I will not punish her physically. She will learn it in another way.” Her mother pets her face and tells her that she should not worry. Y/N takes her backpack and walks to her bedroom. Before she goes into the bedroom, she wipes the last tear off her face. 

“Sorry, my father wanted to tell me something.” 

“Are you okay?”, Jaebum whispers. “Your eyes are-” She does not give him a chance to finish his sentence. 

“Yeah, let’s start. Especially you!” She points at BamBam. “We have to hold a speech about strong women in history.” 

“Yeah sure.” 

“Do you even know any?” 

“Well… I think there was one in England… Wasn’t there one in each kingdom!?”  

“I cannot believe we are in the same class.” Everyone starts to laugh as BamBam and Y/N start to discuss kingdoms and the strong women in history. That he only responded with  _‘Uh’_  and _‘oh that’s right’_  did not make it any better.  

“I heard some laughter and I thought I bring you some snacks and drinks.”, her mother says. Y/N realized the make up on her mother’s face. The violet spot was gone and the bloody lip was hidden with red lipstick. The boys thank her for the snacks and drinks.  

“Mom, one sort of a drink would have been enough and two kind of snacks too. This is way too much.” 

“Well, when we compare what you eat to what we eat, I think we are able to finish it all.”, Jackson jokes. 

“If you need more let me know. Oh yeah by the way, if you need more space let me know too. Maybe we can change the living room into a better place than your bedroom.” 

“Thanks mom.” Her mother waves and leaves her room. 

“She’s the total opposite of your dad.”, Jackson says. “I like her.” 

“Yeah, sometimes they are like day and night, but they also have the times when they look like identical stars.” 

“Shall we talk with them regarding the play?”, Jinyoung asks. “Or do you think he needs to calm down first?” 

“Honestly, I would let it be for today-” She stops her sentence as she sees BamBam playing with her stuffed animal. “Put Rex back down! Who told you to touch my stuff!” 

“It is just a stuffed dog, relax.” She takes it from him and puts it back on her desk carefully. “Should a stuffed animal be in a bed and not on a desk?” 

“It is the last thing I got from father before he passed away. It stays on the desk so it reminds me that he is watching over me.” 

“Shit. I am sorry. I didn’t mean to…”  

“Forget it. Let’s start with studying.” Studying went well and before anyone noticed, they were studying for almost two hours straight. Jungkook was looking at Yugyeom to get his attention but he ignored him. After failing to get his attention he tries to get the attention by Jin, but he fails again. He looks around to see that Jimin was looking at him. Jimin showed two fingers at his eyes and then he pointed the two fingers at his book. Jungkook only shakes his head by his sign and his stomach becomes hearable. 

“I’m hungry.”, Jungkook says loudly. Jin starts to shake his head at Jungkook’s words. 

“Yeah, me too.”, Hoseok says. 

“My mom asked me if she should cook something for us or if we should order in. Does somebody else want some pizza?” The faces of the boys light up and that is the sign for her. She gets up to look for her mother, who is baking in the kitchen. “Muffins? Fresh baked muffins?” 

“Yeah. You were studying so quietly I thought you deserve to have something sweet.” 

“That’s awesome.” She hugs her from behind and puts her chin on her shoulder. “Mom, you said we could order in, you remember?” 

“Let me guess, pizza?” 

“Did I mention you are the best mother ever?” Her mother chuckles about her daughter’s choice of words. She shows to the menu card they have from the local pizzeria. “I will try to talk them in to only order maximum of seven pizzas.” 

“Are the boys hungry?” Y/N starts to freeze up by seeing him standing there. “I will go to the bank to pick up some money. We will order ten pizzas, your mother and I are hungry too.”  

“Thank you. I will be right back.” She goes back to her bedroom to tell them about ordering. But the first thing she sees is that they have packed their stuff already. “You do not think that two hours take you far, huh?” 

“Well, two hours is pretty long for us. When the pizza comes, we will need space and I am not sure if we will study after eating.” She looks at their faces and realizes that they were not joking. 

“Okay, here is the menu. We can order up to eight pizzas. Just write down what you like and maybe we have a few matches.” She takes a paper as well as the menu and gives it to Namjoon to start. “You’ll start.” The paper finally made its round back to her and as she looks through it, she sees four different variations. “Well, then we have eight. I’ll order.” She walks into the kitchen as she sees that there are a few muffins placed on a blue tray. “I have the list and as an exchange I take the muffins?” Her mother nods with a smile as she takes the list from her. Y/N whispers a thank you and brings the muffins to the boys. 

“I was just thinking, maybe we should practice for the play. It’s not even a month away.”, Jinyoung suggests. 

“No, I want my parents to see me doing the performance on stage for the first time.” Yoongi’s eyes turn to Jungkook as he is the only one to take two muffins at the same time.  

“Can you not be so eager? Pizza will arrive soon anyway.” 

“I am hungry. There is only one thing I can do about it and that is eating. Our couch even told us to work on our muscles, therefore we need energy. Energy comes from eating.” 

“Will you even be on the field? I know about Jackson, but you?” 

“Jackson, Jaebum and me. We have received the yes by our coach. We will play.” 

“I hope Y/N will finally watch a good game of American football?”, Jaebum says whilst he tries to read her face. 

“I will make sure she comes.”, Namjoon smiles at her. “If not, we can all grab her and take her to the field.” Y/N bites her lower lip nervously as she looks back at Namjoon. “Let me guess, you have never watched a game, right?” 

“It’s not like that. But they start after school and” she looks to the door. “I don’t know if he will allow me to go.” The smell of pizza starts to fill the room.  

“Y/N, stay here. We will get them.” Youngjae, Tae and Mark are speed walking out of the room.  

“Are they mocking me for the one time you two saw me?” She asks with her eyes focused on Yoongi. “Yoongi?” 

“Maybe they do, but only because it looked kind of girly.” 

“What are you trying to say?” 

“Nothing. Nothing at all.” Yoongi tries to avoid to go deeper within this topic and looks to the door. “What is taking them so long?”, he says as he gets up to check on them. 

“What did he mean by that?”, she asks into the room whilst her eyes are at the door. 

“Nothing. You know him, he says things that he does not mean the way he says it.”, Jinyoung says as he sits down next to her. Her mind is spinning around as she tries to understand what he meant.


	4. Chapter 4

That Monday would have come so quickly, was something that she was not looking forward to. But at the same time, she did. The impression her stepfather might have left on her friends, worries her. That her parents did not want to answer her question about the swallowing of her mother’s face, makes her head think of different theories which came all to the same result. The strongest question in her head is, what if he tries it again. She needs to talk with her mother about this, but there is no chance since he is always there when Y/N gets home. He works from home lately, which she personally started to dislike. Y/N avoids any possibility to have a fight with him and tries to keep him happy with the answers he wants to hear. Because she thinks, if he leaves them or throws them out, they will end up the same way as they did before. On her way to school she listens to a playlist which helps her to calm down, one thing is for sure. No matter how horrible it will get, her friends should never get a hint about it. When she walks along the road, she looks at the cars which are passing by. As a bus drives pass her, she starts to scan the windows for her friends but she cannot see them. Even though her heart is heavy with the worries for her mother, she tries to fake a smile as she comes closer to the school. School would start in more than thirty minutes but she did not want to wait any longer at home than necessary. The air at home felt thicker each hour, it becomes harder to breathe and that took her focus from studying. The happiness she felt when school ended to get home to eat dinner as a family disappeared over the weekend. “Good morning Jin!”, she screams. He turns around with a smile on his face. 

“Hey. You are here way earlier than usual.” 

“I know. I wanted to study in the library today.” 

“Good idea.” She feels horrible about lying but it is the best for now. Studying is at least the most believable thing she could use to lie. 

“Why are you here already?” 

“I wanted to check if everything is prepared for tomorrow. You will watch your first American football match, are you excited?” 

“It is tomorrow? I thought it is on Thursday.” 

“No, tomorrow. You will come right?” 

“I don’t know. I want to but I don’t know.” 

“Should I pick you up to make sure you come?”, he winks. 

“I am not a baby and you would have to come with Namjoon since he said he wants to make sure that I come.” 

“He probably forgot that part already.” Jin laughs. “He forgets when he says he will pick someone up. The last time he said he will pick me up from home to get some stuff for his party, he called me when he arrived at the shop. The best thing about it, he called me and asked where I’m at.” He starts to shake his head whilst he smiles. 

“Can I ask you something?”, she asks as she starts to play with her sleeves. 

“Shoot.” 

“Is Jinyoung easily mad at someone? Like, would he forgive me if I am not going to play my role and he has to play it with this wannabe princess?” Jin takes his arm around her shoulder and walks into the school without an answer. “Don’t you want to answer me?” 

“I will. I just don’t want to talk about with the possibility of others hearing us.” Only a handful of other students were there, no one she knows personally. Most of them are older students that Jin might know. They walk to the class room which is normally used for art work. This class was mostly in use in the afternoon, therefore the perfect place to talk about things that no one else should hear. “So, now that we are a hundred percent alone. Why don’t you want to play the role?” 

“It is too much stress.” Jin crosses his arms in front of his chest. “I need to find more time to study.” 

“Okay, drama once a week is too stressful. Got it... and now, the truth.” 

“That is the truth.” 

“Come on. I don’t know you that long, but I know you are not telling me the truth.” Y/N sighs as she notices that there is no way to beat around the bush. 

“Okay, okay.” She takes one of the chairs and places it in front of him. “Sit down.” She grabs another chair and places it next to his. “The reason is he wants to call in on the day of the play to tell the principal that I am sick. He doesn’t want me to stand on the stage and perform the only role I ever auditioned for.” 

“Your father?” 

“Yeah, who else.”, she says annoyed. 

“You said ‘he’. How am I supposed to know who you are talking about?” 

“I know what I am saying. I just don’t know what to call him.” 

“Why don’t you call him dad or by his first name?” 

“I only accepted him because he makes my mother happy. I won’t call him dad, he is no dad to me. He tries but he will never replace my dad.” Jin turns to her with a sincere look on his face. 

“You know, after my mom died, my father did everything he could to give me a new mom. He always broke up with a woman when he realized that we did not come along. He did not care about himself, he wanted me to not miss out on having a mother.” 

“How old were you when your mother died?” 

“I was nine years old.  A drunken guy drove directly into my mother with his car. She was walking on a side walk, but he still managed to drive his car into her. She died right away. The doctors said she had no chance.” 

“I am sorry, I did not know you don’t have a mother.” 

“I do now. It took me a few years to accept a new mother. It took my dad a few years to realize that I needed time. I even found her, well, kind of. She was my teacher at my old school.” 

“That is why you are so clever.” The attempt of making a joke stays unnoticed by Jin. 

“The reason why I say this is, maybe you just need more time.” 

“Maybe you are right. It all happened so fast.” Jin looks at his watch before he looks back to her. 

“Y/N, the others are about to arrive soon. Do you want to wait outside for them?” 

“No, I will wait for the rascals in the class room. I will see you and the others at lunch. Bye!”, she says as she walks out of the room. She stops at the open door to look why she does not hear his footsteps. When she looks back, she could see him thinking about something. “I thought you wanted to leave too?” He gets up and walks over to her. 

“One thing I forgot to say.” 

“That would be?” 

“You have to come tomorrow!” He shows a finger at her and looks seriously. Y/N laughs as she makes some space for him to close the class room door behind them. 

“Are you trying to act seriously? Because honestly, I don’t think acting is for you.” Both start to laugh at the same time. His acting was really bad, especially because he almost broke into laughter by himself as he finished his sentence. 

“Hey guys! Could not overhear your laughter.”, Jaebum says. 

“I just realized that Jin is a horrible actor.” 

“Yeah, you are right. Jin and acting, that is funny.” Jaebum laughs for a second before he hems. “May I can talk to you for a second alone?” His eyes wander to Y/N. 

“Oh, yeah right. I promised to talk with Yoongi and Youngjae about the ideas for the stage. See you around.”, Jin says as he leaves them alone. 

“Y/N, are you alright?” 

“Yeah, I am fine.” Jaebum sighs as he tries to read her face.  

“You cried when your father took you by the wrist.” He licks his lips nervously. “Did he hurt you before?” 

“Are you listening to yourself? It might have looked like that but he would never do anything to me.” 

“I am sorry. I didn’t mean to put him on a negative spotlight. It’s just that you had such sad eyes when you came to your room. I want you to be alright, I mean we all do.” 

“That’s nice from you, thanks.”, she says as she gives him a short hug. “I will let you guys know if something bad is going on, okay?”, she whispers in his ear before she moves away from him. “No worries needed.” 

“No worries? The teacher will give us the result of our essays today. You have it easy to say _‘no worries._ _’_ ”, Yugyeom says in an almost panic voice. 

“Relax. It won’t be so bad. You only had to learn what I gave you. Didn’t you do it?” 

“I did... I am not sure if I did write down everything.” 

“Wait, you prepared his essay?”, Jaebum asks. 

“I did not prepare it. I gave him some hints that he could write, the rest was up to him.” 

“Yeah, right. She only gave me some hints. The rest is totally my work.” 

“Uh huh. Y/N, don’t do his work anymore. He should use his brain at least sometimes. I see you two at lunch.” Jaebum waves for a second before Hoseok attacks him from behind.  

“He is never scared, is he?” 

“Y/N, don’t tell me you are crushing on him?” 

“Me? No. But a normal person would have been scared if someone jumps at you from the back.” She looks around. “Where is Kook and where is Bam?” 

“Good question. BamBam will be as late as usual but I did not hear from Kook yet.” He takes his phone out to check if he received any text messages. “Nope. No news.” Both mumble an okay and walk to their class room.

* * *

At lunch they only topic was the essay. Which made BamBam disbelief of the fairness of the rating. “Can’t believe I got a C minus. I wrote pretty much everything she wrote and formed them into my words. She has an A for almost the same text.” 

“Look Bam, here. Right here. Can you read what the teacher wrote?” BamBam narrows his eyes before he looks at her. “I help you reading. It says _‘Please focus on your own work and less on the class mate’s work. Only a C minus based on the length you wrote.’_ ” 

“I can read, okay?” Y/N puts her hands up as a sign of surrendering. 

“You would be a cute couple.”, Yugyeom says mockingly which made the others on the table laugh. 

“Take care of your own stuff. You have a C.” 

“Yes, that is right. The next one will be either a B or an A. I’ll get better.” 

“Who says that I won’t get better?” 

“No one. But maybe you should not go to parties every weekend, huh?” 

“Just shut up.” BamBam says as he looks around. “Where are the others at?” 

“Jinyoung and Tae are talking with their drama teacher. Jimin and Hoseok are trying to talk Jaebum into coming back to the dance group since Jinyoung declined. They should have asked me, I would say yes immediately...” 

“How come you are so informed?” 

“I read the messages my friends send me.” Y/N and BamBam take their phones out to see that they have not read the messages. BamBam starts laughing until he looks up. 

“Why does Jinyoung look so mad?” Y/N looks at BamBam before she looks in the direction of where BamBam is looking at. Jinyoung did look mad and Tae is right behind him. It is obvious that he tries to keep up with Jinyoung. 

“Y/N! I can’t believe what I just heard... I hope it is a joke!” 

“Which joke?” 

“You cannot let me down! Are you insane? You will play your damn role!” Y/N swallows the grape that she had just put in her mouth as she looks up at him.  

“I want to, but I cannot do it.” 

“Coward! You will not appear at the play? You will make me play with her? With that wannabe?” 

“I don’t understand what you are trying to tell me.” 

“That you would leave drama is something I accept, but that you won’t appear on the day of the role is something I don’t accept. Now you pretend you don’t know what I am talking about? How dare you? We were helping you since you came to this school and you have nothing else to do than to let me down? I thought we were friends...” 

“I am not letting you down. It is not even my choice!” 

“For god sake it is your choice. Only your choice!” 

“Don’t pretend to know things that you know nothing about.” Namjoon and Mark are still standing in the queue as they can hear Jinyoung’s screaming which fills the cafeteria. Both of their eyes keep stuck on them. Almost everyone in the cafeteria is giving them the same attention as them. 

“Guys, calm down. Let’s talk about this outside.”, Tae suggests. 

“No. There is nothing to talk about.” She clarifies as she gets up from the table. “You cannot be my friend if my stepfather does not allow me to play? When he already told me that he will call the school to tell them I am sick even though he said he will watch my first and only play?” Her face becomes red as the anger makes her eyes look watery. 

“Keep your tears. I don’t believe you anything anymore. You are such a good actress. Who are you, huh?” Those words hurt her. They were spoken fast, but they cut deep. 

“Fine, be mad all you want. Don’t expect me to be around you anymore. You say I do not appreciate the help you guys gave me? I do not appreciate to have you as my friends?” She takes her backpack and throws it over her shoulder. “Then I do not need you either. I have been good on my own ever since I can remember. I don’t need anyone who thinks like that around me.” Without saying anything else she storms out of the cafeteria, her eyes fixed on the floor as the anger takes over her breathing. Everyone’s eyes are following her out before all the attention goes back to Jinyoung. Her friends are frozen up by the scene that just happened. Jungkook throws an angry look at Jinyoung before he tries to catch up with her. 

“Y/N wait!”, Jungkook screams. When she noticed that Jungkook starts to run behind her, she starts to run too. She tries to get to girls' bathroom before he can catch up. The door swung open by her fast movement that she almost does not see the girl who is standing behind the door. This girl darts a glare at her but Y/N does not care. She wants to be alone right now. When she finds an unlocked toilet door, she goes in and locks the door. Her phone starts to vibrate in her pocket, but she just does not care who might try to call her. Y/N waited until she cannot hear anyone else in the bathroom before she takes her phone out. A missed phone call by Jungkook appeared on her phone screen but she only deletes the notification. To go back into the classroom is something she does not want to do now. As she thinks about what to do next, she takes her headphones out and connects it with her phone. After a few songs she looks at the phone to see for how long she has been in there already. Class had already started, this time it does not matter to her if she misses something important in class. It does not bother her at all. Her phone starts to vibrate in her hand again. 

 **From** **Yugyeom** **:** Where are you? You never miss class... 

 **From** **BamBam** **:** The teacher is asking for you, shall we say something? 

 **From** **BamBam** **:** Nevermind. Told him you feel unwell. 

 **From** **Yugyeom** **:** Is Jungkook with you? He is not in class either...  

Y/N takes a deep breath before she turns her music up and closes her eyes. That Jinyoung will not take it in a good way is something she thought about, but that he would be this mad is something that she did not expect. Whilst she sits on the closed toilet seat, she lets her emotions go. A few tears escape from her eyes. Those tears are not just from sadness but also from the anger that is building inside her. The thought of being on her own again crosses her mind. If Jinyoung talks the others into not talking with her anymore, would they listen to him if he would try to, she wonders. It feels as she is sitting there for hours, when she checked her phone to see how late it is again, she can see two messages from Jungkook. 

 **From Jungkook:** I am waiting for you... could you please come out of the bathroom? 

 **From Jungkook:** Our teacher just saw me sitting in the hall, he brought me to the class room to make sure I am not staying there. Can we talk after school? 

Her fingers were shaking when she wanted to respond but she just could not type anything. Y/N does not even know what she should answer him. If she would shake up the whole dynamic between them, wouldn’t it make the others mad too? Slowly with still some tears falling off her face, she takes her phone and turns her music off. She packs it all back into her backpack before she walks to the sinks. The look in the mirror confirms that she looked like a mess. Her mascara is all over her face, her eyes are red and her lips are dark red. The cheeks are pink and every other detail that shows that she was crying is seeable on her face. She washes the mascara off, thankfully her mother bought her a non-waterproof mascara. She takes some paper towels and makes them wet with cold water before she puts them on her face. She leans her head back a little to keep the paper towels in place on her face. That somebody was coming in, is something she did not notice.  

“Y/N, is that you?”, a girl asks. Y/N takes the paper towels from her face to see who is to talking to her. “Jungkook got in trouble because he waited for you, our teacher yelled at him. As the class president, I asked if it is okay to check on you and to see if you are still in the bathroom. Do you need anything?” Y/N is surprised by her kindness, they barely talked with each other and still she is talking so nicely to her which makes her think if she might just act like it or if she is truly such a nice person. Normally girls were only this nice to her when they needed something from her. Maybe she wants something in return she thinks. 

“I am fine... I just started to feel sick. I think I will go to the nurse, I don’t feel well.” 

“I’ll go with you. Just to be sure you that nothing happens on your way there.” Y/N presses her lips together and nods. The walk to the school nurse was quiet and she thankfully does not run into somebody else. “I would suggest to stay at home if you don’t feel that good tomorrow.” She touches Y/N’s arm and puts a smile on her face. “Hopefully you will feel better tomorrow, take care.” With those words she leaves her alone. After knocking three times, the nurse opens the door opens.  

“Can I help you?”, the nurse asks as she looks up and down at Y/N.  

“Yeah, I feel sick and I want to go home. I just threw up.”, Y/N lies. She puts out the best of acting that she could to hear the words that she is allowed to go. The examination felt as it took forever and it made her nervous to hear the school bell ring.  

“Alright. You need to rest, therefore I let you go home. If you don’t feel well tomorrow, tell your parents to call the school to inform us.” When she sees that Y/N is still sitting there and not moving an inch, she turns to her again. “Something else you need from me?” 

“No. I just don’t want my class mates to see me like that.” 

“Well, you can wait until the next class starts. Is somebody at home or should I call someone?” 

“No, my parents are not home at this time. They are both at work. I will have to go the pharmacy anyway to get some medicine to relax my stomach.” The nurse nods and writes something down. When she was done writing she handles her a note with a few different kinds of medicine noted on it. When it sounded as the hallway would have become quiet, she leaves the room. On her way back home, she stops at the park which she usually only walks pass by. She walks into the park and lies down on the big spider web similar thing and closes her eyes. Two hours must pass before she can go home, Y/N did not feel like she wants to tell them why she left the school this early. She takes her headphones and her phone out of her backpack once again to listen to her favorite music. After a few minutes she walks over to the swings to swing. It became too boring for her quickly. She gets up and prepares herself mentally before she goes home.

* * *

Her heart starts to race and her mind is spinning to find excuses why she left earlier. To her surprise, nobody answers her when she calls for her mother. It looks like no one is at home at all. She looks into every room before she decides to put her stuff in her room and to cook something for herself. On her bedroom desk is a letter, written by her mother. She takes it in her hands as she sits down on the chair next to the desk. 

 _‘Honey, by the time your home we won’t be there. We have an important appointment that we cannot miss. I cooked some Spaghetti for you, you will find it in the fridge. We are going to eat at a restaurant later on, so you can eat whatever is at home. Don’t forget to lock the door and go to bed early. Love, mom.’_  

At first, she wonders what kind of appointment they might have but she is already so tired from today that all she wants to do is eat, sleep and hopefully not going to school on the next day. She turns the flight mode off on her phone and puts it back in her pocket as she walks towards the kitchen. As she puts the Spaghetti into the microwave, the doorbell rings. She takes her headphones off and places it together with the phone on the kitchen counter. When she opens the door, she can see that Jungkook is standing there with chocolate in his hand.  

“Hello. What are you doing here?” 

“Hey, you did not answer my texts.”, he says. “Can I come in?” 

“Sure, but not for long.” She opens the door wide enough to let him in before she locks the door again. “What’s up?” 

“Well, I thought you might be still mad at Jinyoung, therefore, here you are.” He hands her the chocolate with a smile. “You cannot be mad at me too, when I got chocolate, right?” She smiles as she takes it from him.  

“Thank you.” 

“I am sorry, Jin only wanted to know how he will react if you would tell him what you told him. He only wanted to answer your question from today, but Jinyoung took it too personally.” 

“I am not mad at Jin. Not at all.” 

“You’re not? Even though he is the one who told him...?” 

“Even then. Look, I don’t know how to handle this situation. I understand he does not want to be my friend after this, but... Are we still friends? Am I still friends with you or the others?” 

“Why would you not be our friend?” The sound of the microwave brings Jungkook’s attention to the smell which is in the air. “That looks very nice.” 

“Do you want it? I still have some more Spaghetti left.”, she says as she shows him the food. 

“If you don’t mind.” She puts the Spaghetti on the table. 

“Bon appétit.” 

“Thank you.” She brings two spoons and two forks to the table before she puts another portion of Spaghetti into the microwave. He decides to take a bite to taste the flavor. “It’s good. Did you cook it?” 

“No, my mother did.” Jungkook waits for her food to be warmed-up so that they could eat together. “Just eat, mine takes one more minute.” 

“I can wait one minute.”, he says as he looks at her. “Did you really feel sick or were you just too embarrassed to see us?” She takes her plate and sits down in front of him. 

“He became louder and louder, to a point to which I turn my hearing off. I just wanted to get away from there, at least he knows now that I will not play.” 

“Well, him and the whole school.” Jungkook swallows before he looks up from his plate. “Is everything else okay?” 

“Yeah, everything else is fine.” 

“You know, Jaebum told me that he feels a bit worried about you.” Y/N looks at him with a tilted head. “He is not the only one who worries about you, he was just the first one who said it out loud.” 

“No worries needed, I am doing good.” 

“You said that you are used to be on your own or something like that... I heard when you said to your father that we are your only friends that you have...” 

“What are you trying to say?”, she asks whilst she takes another bite from her Spaghetti. 

“What I am trying to say is, no matter what happens, we are your friends.” He starts to play with his fork within his food. “I hope your father does like us more than in the beginning.” 

“He said nothing bad about you. Especially Jin, he is his favorite.”  

“Who doesn’t like him? I am glad that the likes us. Do you think we can hang out more often now that your father likes us?” 

“Don’t we do that tomorrow anyway?” 

“Yes, but that is different. You will watch me play... Maybe we can hang out once again, even if it is just studying.” He looks towards the chocolate before his eyes turn back to her. “Did I mention how good the color blue looks on you.” 

“Are you trying to be extra nice so that I share the chocolate with you?” 

“Yes and no.”, he answers. “I hope you do not quit our friendship because of the way he behaved. We really like you as our friend.” Y/N smiles. “Do you want to do homework together?” 

“Well we could eat chocolate and you explain everything I need to know about the match tomorrow?” 

“Ugh, I can tell you some rules, but I will only tell you everything you need to know. Let’s start with the basics. Maybe we should do that in the living room. It would be more comfortable.” She nods as she cleans up. He picks up his dirty plate but she takes it out of his hand.  

“You’re a guest in my house. No need to do any of my duties.” 

“Fine. Then I’ll make a research on a good match to help you understand in the meantime.”, he says as Y/N puts the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. Her eyes stuck on the chocolate he brought. “Don’t forget the chocolate.” Y/N shakes her head as she takes the chocolate. She places the chocolate between them before she sits down next to him. “So, what do I need to know?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello ღゝ◡╹)ノ♡
> 
> Thank you for reading. I hope you like the way this story is heading to.  
> Feedback, Kudos and comments are always welcomed (ღ˘⌣˘ღ)


	5. Chapter 5

“Y/N. Hey, wake up.”, her mother says softly as she shakes her a bit by her shoulder. As Y/N opens her eyes, she can see a comforting smile on her mother’s face.  The room is still dark the only light in her room comes from the door.

“How late is it?”, Y/N mumbles as she touches her face.  “Am I late?”

“No, not at all.” Her mother chuckles. “It is almost five am. I am sorry to wake you up earlier as you  have  planned, but your dad has some business meeting  to  which I will accompany him today. You were already asleep last night when we got home, that is why I thought I wake you up for a minute to tell you about today. I hope you don’t mind if we leave you alone again tonight?” Y/N rubs her eyes as she sits up.

“That’s fine with me.” Her voice sounds so tired that a smirk appears on her mother’s face. “I mean, that  it  is more than alright. Three of my friends are in the football team and they have a match today. They said that I should come and watch their match.”, she says as she fights against the feeling of yawning.

“When will the match begin?”

“They said after school, but I don’t know the exact time.”

“Well, I will make sure that we stay until  eight  or  nine .”, she sighs. “Honey, I cannot promise it though. You know your dad, with some business partners he can talk for hours and some he just wants to go away from. This is apparently one he does not even want to go to.” Her mother’s eyes wander through the room as she obviously thinks about something. “We need approximately fifty minutes for one ride, I will text you when we drive off. Make sure you are home by then, okay?” Y/N hugs her mother.

“Thank you!” 

“Now go back to sleep. We will drive off at six thirty. In case you don’t want to sleep and you want to have breakfast with us  instead .” Y/N shakes her head as an answer and lies back down. Immediately she closes  with the hope of going  back to the nice dream, she just had. She can hear someone walking towards her room. She closes her eyes and pretends to be asleep. Y/N hears a sigh, but it is not her mother’s.

“What are you doing? Let her sleep.”, her stepfather whispers into the room. He holds a hand out to her and when she is close enough, he pulls her closer.

“Don’t worry. I will not wake her up.”, she says as she  hugs  him. 

“Maybe we can leave earlier  tonight  so we can eat together, huh?”

“Let’s leave some money in the kitchen, then she can go out to eat or order in if she likes.”

“Okay, sounds good to me too.” She gives him a fast peck on the lips and walks to the kitchen. Her stepfather looks at Y/N closely to see if she is  asleep  or not. When he thinks that she does, he closes the door.

* * *

 

It was the class before lunch break, in which no one really paid attention to ,  because of the substitute teacher. This teacher knows how to bore the hell out of a student, he practically just reads and does not answer any of the students question which made Y/N a little bit angry. It comes as no surprise that her mind starts to drift off as everyone else in class already did. Jungkook and Yugyeom already started to play thumb war. “Y/N.”,  BamBam  whispers. “Y/N.”, he repeats in a funny voice.

“ What could you possible want from me? We are in class, just once. Only once be quiet so I can concentrate. ”

“As you could focus on anything when this ‘teacher’ talks like  that... ”

“Gotcha.  What do you want from me?”

“Nothing.  I want nothing from you but an answer. ” 

“Then s hut  it.”, Y/N says.  BamBam  rips a sheet from his notebook and starts to draw lines. Then he writes down their friend names and then he writes three names with a distance to the others. Then he writes a sentence underneath it and slides it to her. ‘ _ Is it okay for you if we sit like this?’ _  Y/N laughs at his drawing , it looks as he tried to draw the tribune and a part of the football field . She only w rites a  _ 'yes’ _  before she slides it back.

“Perfect.”, he says as he takes one short look at the teacher who is with his eyes back in his book.  BamBam  slowly takes out his phone and takes a photo of his drawing. The click of his phone fills the room and  that drags  the attention of the teacher  to him. The class started to fill with laughter and some students only grin whilst some shake their head .

“Put the phone away before I take it away!”, the teacher s ays  in  his  direction. “You must be Mr. Kunpimook? I got already told that you will interrupt my class, one more time and you’ll get detention. Do you understand?”

“Yes sir, I understand.”,  BamBam  says in a mockingly tone. As the teacher turns away, he turns his phone on vibrate. 

“Bam, put that phone away  already . You already got your attention.”, Y/N says with a shaking head until her phone starts to vibrate. When she touches her pocket to get the phone, she notices that Jungkook and Yugyeom are just about to do the same. She sees the notification that  BamBam  has send the photo to the group chat. “Could you not wait for lunch?”

“Come on. Be happy I made this plan or do you want to sit next to Jinyoung?” He tilts his head and puts an eyebrow higher than the other one. 

“We could have discussed it besides, I wanted to  be placed  next to you and  Yugyeom  anyway.”

“You wrote ‘yes’ on the plan. Could you have not said that you do not want to  be placed  next to  someone else? ”

“That’s not it.”

“What is the problem then?”

“I would sit in his eye sight. I do not want wholes in my head from his stares.”

“You are such a drama queen. He will get over it  soon , don’t think about him. Think about the game!” She starts to think that he might not be wrong. Why should she  even  focus on him when she is there to cheer for her friends ' team .

* * *

 

“I am hungry. Why do we have so many students in our school? Could the queue be any longer than that?”, Jackson  complains . 

“Don’t be such a crybaby.”, Y/N comments with a smile. “No one like s a crybaby .”

“I am not a crybaby , okay?”

“Sure.”, she says as Jackson’s eyes go to the front of the queue. “Crybaby.”  Namjoon and Yugyeom  start to laugh along themselves as Jackson pretends to be hurt.

“I hope you like the game, I will give more than two-hundred percent of what I can give. I’ll show that who you call a crybaby is the one of the manliest men on this planet.” Y/N nods at his words. “Don’t believe me? Watch me.”

“I am looking forward to the game.” After a few minutes they finally had their food. Jackson points at one table whilst  Yugyeom  points at another one. Somehow, they could not decide to which table they should go to. The cafeteria  looks  more crowded than usual which makes it harder for them to find their friends.

“There, I found them. How were they even faster than us?”, Namjoon asks. Y/N did not see who  he was  talking about, she only followed them until her eyes meet Jinyoung’s. Her throat feels tight as she can see that he tries to speak but no word is coming out of his mouth either. She looks at the others on the table before her eyes move to her tray. She bites her lower  lip  before she turns to Jackson.

“I go and sit somewhere else. I don’t want to cost any drama.”, Y/N says as she  is  about to walk away.

“Nope.”, Jackson says as he puts his arm around her shoulder. “You can sit far away from him, but you still have the same friends together. Which means we will eat together.” Jackson takes her to the table, to keep her next to him. Apparently, it does not make the strange feeling go away since she looked at Jinyoung and that he almost sits opposite of her on this round table does not help at all. She tries to avoid to look in Jinyoung’s direction as good as she can. Even though the anger is not visible in his eyes anymore, it  seems to  be replaced with something else. It kind of looks like there was something else in his, she just does not know how to interpret it. Y/N can see that he feels uncomfortable  too  from the corner of her eyes. 

“Hello boys and beautiful girl.”,  Jaebum  says as he sits down  on the  opposite side  of her. His words place a smile on her face. “I should call you more often beautiful, I missed your smile.”  Hoseok  rolls eyes at his words but when he sees that her cheeks have gone red, he smiles to himself.

“Are you done then?” Y/N shakes her head as she looks back at her tray  with an embarrassed expression . “How wrong from me to say that you all see me as something else but not girly...”

“You are right that you are wrong.” , Jaebum says before he takes a bite from his sandwich. 

“You speak a lot today, are you so nervous?”

“ Jaebum  did not play last year.  He probably t h inks that he is not good enough yet .” ,  Youngjae  says.

“We have our good luck charm Y/N with us, it’s going to work out just fine.”, Jin  comments .

“You sure she’s coming?”

“Hello! I am right here! And yes, I will come. My parents are at a meeting, which will  be a  longer  one .  She  will text me fifty minutes before they arrive at home. I should be able to watch  your game .”

“Make sure your phone is full. Otherwise your plan might backfire.”, Jinyoung mumbles. It was still loud enough though for everyone to hear on the table. His words are surprising every one, no one thought that he would speak with her so soon again. Everyone looked a bit confused that he just tried to talk with her. Maybe he did not want to talk with her directly, maybe he just tried to talk with himself.  The table has never been this silent as it is now. Their eyes move between her and him as well towards each other in confusion. “What?”, Jinyoung asks looking at everyone but except Y/N. Everyone mumbles a  _ nothing  _ whilst her eyes and his eyes make  eye  contact. A smirk starts to appear on his face, to her surprise it does not look faked. They look at each other for almost ten seconds before he clears his throat and looks away. Jackson pushes his elbow against her upper arm and moves his eyebrows  as he is  questioning  her  what that  was just  about. She only forms her lips into a smile before she pushes him back with the elbow. For a second, she wonders why  Jinyoung  behaved the way he did but a voice in her head told to do not waste time thinking about it. She only spares him one more look before  Hoseok  lightens up the mood with an idea he has for dance class. He tells them about a n  idea he has but the problem is that they still need one more dancer in their group.

“If you truly need one more dancer, I can suggest you one.”, Y/N says. “Do you want to know who, Hoseok?”

“Okay, spit it. Who?”

“ Yugyeom .” She starts to point in  Yugyeom’s  direction. “The other day he said he would say yes immediately  if you would ask him if he would join you . Do you still want to  do it , Yugyeom?” Yugyeom looked surprised by her suggestion that he need a second before he swallows his food.

“Me? Yes, I still would like to...”, he sighs. “But you are all on a different level than me.”

“We will meet up on Wednesday?”, Jimin asks as he looks at the other dancers on the table. “Forget that, we will hang out on Saturday. We will teach you some dances and then we will see how fast you can learn.” Y/N winks at  Yugyeom  before she puts her attention back on her meal.

“Sounds great.”,  Yugyeom  says. He looks one more to her. When she looks at him too, he moves his lips as he would want to say  _ ‘thank you’ _ .

* * *

 

“Finally.”, BamBam says. 

“Why do girls need this long in the bathroom  every single time ?”, Yugyeom says as his phone rings. “Hello? Where? Already? Yeah, we are on our way.” He hangs up and looks at  BamBam . "We need to run. They are trying to keep the sits saved for us but some others are making troubles because they want to sit there.”  Yugyeom  starts to run first, he is very fast and the speed he is running with is hard for Y/N to keep up with. Once arrived at the tribunes, all three look around to find them.  BamBam  is the first one to see Tae and Namjoon waving at them.

“There!”,  BamBam  screams over the loud screams of the others. When Y/N finally  gets to  her spot, which is between Mark and Jimin, she sees  Jaebum  warming up on the field. She tries to find the Jackson and Jungkook too ,  but she cannot find them. When  Jaebum  looks in their direction, she starts to wave. As he sees her waving, he starts to smile in her direction.  The nervousness is visible on his face. Jackson and Jungkook start to appear and to talk with  Jaebum . Jungkook waves in their direction and Y/N shows him the thumbs up.

“I hope you will like the game, Y/N.”, Jimin says. “Don’t be too focused on  only  one player.”

“Which player?”

“Forget what I said, I  hope you will like the game .”, he says as his body turns to the field. As it is getting louder, she puts her attention to the game  which is about to start .

* * *

As she walks off the tribune, someone takes her by her upper arm and drags her to the side.  “Let go of me!” As she turns her head, her breathing stops for a second. He walks with her to the empty gym behind the field. “What do you want from me?”

“Can we talk?”, Jinyoung asks.  “Please?” 

“There is nothing to talk about. I’ve got to go.”

“I reacted like an idiot. I don’t know what came over me, I am deeply sorry for what I said to you.”

“That’s what you want to talk about? I have nothing to say, excuse me. I have to say goodbye to my friends.” He lets go of her upper arm and follows her quietly.

“I just wanted to ask where you are at. Did you guys talk it out?” , Yoongi asks.

“Yeah, sure. Whatever. I have got to go.  I s ee you guys around!”

“Wait, don’t you want to eat with us? We have to celebrate  our win ! I bet you are hungry already too.”, Jungkook says.

“I am not that hungry and next to that I only have a little over forty minutes left to get home before my parents arrive.” She can see that Jungkook is disappointed, but he fakes a smile. “Bye guys.” Y/N waves to the boys as she starts to walk off. 

“See you tomorrow!”, Jinyoung says to the others as he walks up behind her.  She walks faster but he continues to follow. 

“Where do you think you are going?”

“ I’m w alking you home.”

“There is no need to walk me home.”

“I know. I just need the chance to talk with you. If you still don’t want to talk with me afterwards, fine. But give me a chance to explain myself.”

“Okay, speak.” Y/N starts to slow down as her mind battles with her heart. On one hand she wants it to be back to normal , just the way it was. O n the other hand, she is still mad for the scene he made in the cafeteria.  The embarrassment he cost her and the weird feeling at school this morning with many student’s eyes on her whilst they whisper things to each other.

“I know I have acted like an idiot, but I was so happy that we have the main roles. I was looking forward to play with you as my partner...” Jinyoung does not look at her. He keeps his eyes on the ground and only looks up from time to time as they walk along the road. “When Tae told me that we need to talk with our teacher about you, I was not thinking about anything specific. I thought maybe you would need extra practice or something like that. But when he said you will not appear to the play, I lost it.” He licks his lips repeatedly before he bites in his lower lip for a few seconds. “Last week after drama class, the teacher  told  me and Tae to stay a few minutes longer. He was asking us if we know anything about your father and his opinion about drama. Tae mentioned that your father said he will call you sick in on the day of the play. I was shocked to hear that from him and I started to wonder if you trust me enough to tell me that by yourself. But you did not even attempt to talk with me about this. Our teacher told me today about the day your father came to the school to get you out of the class. I realized how wrong I was when the teacher told me how your father reacted to him when he said he won’t take you out of the play.” Y/N says nothing the whole time as she tries to understand the why he reacted the way he did. She suddenly stops walking when she sees a familiar car parking at the bus stop in front of them.  Jinyoung walked two more steps as he notices that she stopped walking he turns to her.  “I am sincerely  sorry,  can we go back to the way we were?”

“ Oh hell no .” Her voice was almost just a whisper, a shadow of itself as she takes a closer look at the car.

“What ? I just apologized with all of my heart! And you just say no ?”

“My mom and... They should not be here already!”, she says as her palms become sweaty. “I am not prepared. He will not like to see  me  at this time of the day with a friend on the street without his acknowledge.”

“I got it, don’t worry. Come on.”, he s ays . When her parents get out of the car, she could tell that they are in a good mood. Her mother waves at them with a big smile on her face. “Good evening, Mrs. Y/L/N.”, Jinyoung says as they stand in front of them. “Good evening, Sir.”

“Jinyoung, right?” , her mother asks.  Jinyoung nods with a smile. “What are you two doing out this late?”

“I found Y/N in the library studying alone. She told me that nobody was at home and that she wanted to study for the upcoming test.”

“So, you went to the library to study too?”, her stepfather asks.

“That is correct, sir.”

“You are not in the same class though, how do you know about the upcoming test of hers?”

“I know it because of our friends who are in the same class as her. I know the ir  study faces when a test is coming up, but I actually thought someone as clever as  Y/N  do not need to study that hard. I guess I was wrong.” Her father looks proudly at her before he turns to her mother. 

“ That does not explain why you were walking next to her. This is not the library.”, he says with a bit of a serious tone.

“Sir, please don’t be mad. I just wanted to make sure she goes home safely.”

“I think to remember that I saw the name of your friends on the football team who had a match today. Did you not go to them?” Y/N looks nervously at Jinyoung before her eyes went to her mother. 

“Do not ask this kid so many questions! Let him breathe.”, her mother says.

“It’s fine, Mrs. Y/L/N. I went to the library before the game but because of studying we forgot the time.” Her father looks at him suspiciously before he starts to smile.

“Alright then.  Both of you get in the car, I will drive your friend home.”

“Thank you, Sir. But I don’t want to be a burden.” Her father starts to put his hand on his shoulder.

“You wanted her to walk home safely, that shows me that you are trustworthy. Let us make sure that you get home safely too.” He puts his  hand  off him and into his pocket as he looks at Y/N before he looks right back at Jinyoung. “That was not any kind of excuse to save her from being in trouble, right?”

“No, absolutely not.”

“Good.” Her father says as he walks them to the car. “Don’t forget your seatbelts!” The drive to Jinyoung’s home took them less than twenty minutes, but the silence makes her  want to jump out of the car.  From time to time her mother makes some small talk with Jinyoung but her father does not even try to have a conversation with him.

“You can stop the car right  here,  my house is right around the corner.”  Her father pulls to the side and turns the motor off.

“It is truly not far away from our home. Take care, Jinyoung.”

“Thank you for the ride, Sir. Goodbye Mr  Y/L/N and Mrs Y/L/N .” He turns to Y/N. “See you tomorrow.” She only smiles and waves at him. 

“He is a very polite boy.”

“So, he is no punk to you anymore?”, Y/N asks carefully. Her father starts the motor again.

“What do you mean with punk?”

“Well, the last time he was at our home, you called him a punk.”

“I said I give each of them one chance. He seems to use his chance, but you still will not play at the festival.”

“I know.”, she mumbles quietly as she starts to play with her sleeve.  “I have not forgotten about it.”

* * *

 

The morning after she wakes up earlier than usually to be in front of Jinyoung’s house  before he would go to school . She stands in front of  the building  as she looks at her phone to check the time. The extra bag that she has on her left arm is getting heavier so she swings it  with  one  swing  over her shoulder. 

** Y/N:  ** Good morning! When will you come downstairs?

For a few minutes she walks up and down the street as she whistles to herself . She whistles a  melody which is stuck in hear head lately.

** Jinyoung:  ** Hey . J ust woke up. 

Y/N sees a male figure who looks like Jinyoung at one of the windows. She can see that  the boy at the window  has a phone in his hands.  He seems to type something on his phone.

** Jinyoung:  ** Do you want to come upstairs?

** Y/N: ** **** Actually, I thought I come earlier with muffins and toast and we could breakfast at school or at a park...

** Jinyoung:  ** Give me a few minutes. I’ll be right there.

It took him not even ten minutes to be at the front door. “Can I have this service  every day ? I would not mind it at all.”

“Don’t be silly. I just wanted to thank you for basically saving me.”

“Did it help that you forgive me for what I said the other day...?”

“Yes. I forgive you.” Jinyoung smiles has gotten even bigger.  “Here is the first of a few muffins.” Jinyoung takes one from her.

“Did you bake them?”

“Okay, you got me on that.” She rolls her eyes. “I did not bake them.” She takes another muffin from her bag for herself.

“ Oh, t hank God.” Y/N looks at him with narrowed eye brows. “I  would have not been able to eat them if you would have made them .”

“Hey! I brought you muffins and all you can say are those unfriendly words? How rude are you?” Jinyoung starts to laugh. “What’s so funny?”

“You.”

“Me?”

“Yep.” He takes a bite from the muffin in her hand. “They are really good. Mine has even some chocolate pieces in it, yours is only pure vanilla.” He looks at her as another smile appears on his face. “Come on. I was just joking. You are just too cute for your own good self sometimes.”

“Since when am I cute?”

“Who said you are cute?”

“You just did.”

“You were cute, now. You are more like a gremlin.” She makes a funny face at him. “That is exactly how I imagine how you look like without make up.”

“I only wear mascara.”

“Damn. I already pictured you with dozens of pimples and with a weird face shape-”, she interrupts him.

“Okay, got it. Enough.”

“I am not done yet.” She takes the muffin out of his hand. 

“But I am. If you guys say it from time to time at school, fine. But I do not need it after school and especially not before the school even starts.” She holds the muffin in front of his face. “If I give it back, you stop?”

“I would have stopped if you asked me to.”, he says as he takes the muffin from her and walks off. “Hurry, you don’t want to  strike  roots.” She laughs about their conversation as she speeds up to walk beside him.


	6. Chapter 6

Y/N is the first one in the class this morning. While she waits  for her friends to arrive , she takes out her notes and a small bag with a few cupcakes within. As she tries to make her first bite into one of the cupcakes, Jungkook and Yugyeom are coming into the classroom.

“There she is, the girl with the muffins. Jinyoung said you gave him those muffins this morning.” Jungkook shows her  the  muffin  he holds in his hand . “You should have brought me one at least too. In case you forgot, we won yesterday.”

“Uhm, no. I did not forget. Didn’t he tell you why I gave it to him?”

“He did.” Yugyeom says with his mouth stuffed with a muffin. “Still, not cool to not think about us.”

“I did not know that you want some too but here, there are still some cupcakes left.” She hands the bag over to Yugyeom. “At least Jinyoung just does not expect to get something . H e helped me to not get into troubles by my father.”

“You finally call him your father?”

“I don’t call him dad or so. Just when I talk about him, I say father. Is there a problem with it?”

“Nope. Not at all.”, Jungkook says as he spares a look at Yugyeom. “Why are you looking at the label like that?”

“I did not see it when Jinyoung gave us the muffins. Isn’t this the label of the bakery which is owned by Jaebum’s aunt?” He shows the label to Jungkook.

“Yes,  that is her label .”

“Wait a second, my favorite bakery in town belongs to a family member of Jaebum’s family?”

“Yeah, next time say you are a friend of  Jaebum . You’ll get a little discount.”, Jungkook says with a wink. “Not like we use it all the time but sometimes she gives it to us.” Y/N nods her head as she wonders why Jinyoung did not mention t he possibility of a discount . 

“Well, now I know. My parents go to the bakery regularly, especially because my mom loves this one kind of bread that they sale so much.”

“His aunt is really nice. If you need extra pocket money, she will let you work in her bakery for one or two months in a row at the weekends or during the week. Mostly only for four hours a day and not more than four days a week. Only if you beg her for more, she will allow it.”, Yugyeom explains. “I have worked there once, the clients are very kind and she is a nice boss.” From the corner of her eyes she can see a female student standing in front of their class with only her head looking in. She seems as she is looking for someone along with two other male students.  As they look at Y/N, they start to walk towards her.

“Look who we have here.”, the male friend of that girl says.  They  do not belong to their  class,  they seem to be at least in the same grade as  Yoongi  or  Jin . They start to smile as they  are coming closer . “You have no idea how many classes I looked into, to find the gorgeous you in front of me.”

“Dude, leave her alone.”, Yugyeom says as he stands up. This girl holds her hand up to tell him to shut up.

“You are spending time with these losers?” He looks in both of their eyes with disgust.

“Newsflash, this is not your class and I am not interested in whatever you are about to say. May you can leave our class room?”, Y/N says without even looking at them. This boy pushes her stuff to the side and sits down on  in front of her on  her desk. 

“After hearing all the talks from all the boys in this school, I am not surprised you are having a mouth like this.”

“As I would care what you are about to say next.”

“Didn’t your friends tell you?”, the girl says as she looks over her shoulder only to meet the angry eyes of her friends. “There is this one rumor that you do it with all of your male friends. I would not mind to see how far you really would go. I have a party next weekend, I would be glad if you would come. ”

“ Maybe we can prove together that this rumor is nothing but a lie. Interested?” Jungkook g ets  up and is just about to say something as Y/N gets up too.

“Listen, I do not know how much blood is in your brain but judging on the way you sit, nah.. There is not much that could go up there and even if your blood would go up there, it would not be any use for anybody. Get off my table and leave for your own good.”, she says towards the boy. “Don’t you find better boys than him?”, she says to her  whilst pointing at him . The other  boy  only looks away without saying anything. “Leave me alone.”

“Are you dea f ?  She said that you should l eave her alone.”, Jungkook says

“Make me.”, he says with a huge grin on his face. 

“Are you really that childish?”, Y/N comments with her hands crossed in front of her body.

“Figure it out at the party.”, he says as he moves off the table. “I cannot wait to see you shaking your butt in a tiny dress.” The boy bites his lip as a smirk grows on his face. As he walks outside, he almost runs into BamBam. Jungkook and Yugyeom exchange looks before they look at him once again.

“Can you believe that he did that?”, Y/N asks her friends. She shakes her head as she places everything back in place.

“What did I miss? You look upset.”, BamBam comments on the situation.

“This dude you just ran into, he seriously asked her if the rumor about her and us is true.”, Yugyeom explains with rolling eyes. “He truly had the nerve to walk in here and to say this into her face.”

“He also invited her to a party next weekend. I cannot believe this douchebag.” Jungkook’s face expression showed that he is trying to calm himself.

“Are you okay, Y/N?”, BamBam asks as he pets her shoulder. “This rumor annoys the hell out of me. I hope there will be a new one soon.”

“You all knew about the rumor but no one said a thing?”, she asks in disbelief.

“Y/N, it’s just a rumor. We know the truth, so we don’t care about it. You shouldn’t either.”

“It is not like I care, I just wished someone had told me. At least now I know why some girls are so weird lately.”

“Sorry. I’ll let you know next time.”, BamBam says as his eyes move into the direction to the bag between Yugyeom and Jungkook. “You all went to the bakery and no one brings something for me? I will bring no one anything anymore.”

“I brought the muffins, not them.”

“I hope you asked for the discount.”

“I did not because I did not know about it.”

“But why am I the only who gets nothing?”, BamBam says with a sad voice.

“You are not the only one. Jinyoung helped me therefore I brought him the muffins. How many times will I have to repeat myself today?” She shakes her head as she walks to Jungkook’s table to get a cupcake for BamBam. 

“You gave them to us. Why are you taking one from us?”

“You already had a muffin. That is at least twice this size and he did not have one. Sharing is caring my dear friend.” Jungkook repeats her last sentence mockingly as he sees Yugyeom texting. 

“Who are you texting with?”

“Yoongi and Mark. This dude is from their class, I think  to have seen him near their class. Maybe  they can keep an eye on him.”

“How are they supposed to know who you are talking about?”

“That is why I made a picture of him.” He smirks to himself until the teacher comes in.  The smirk disappeared as soon as he has seen the tests from the last class in the teacher’s hand.

“Good morning. I hope you all had a very good breakfast.”, the teacher says as he throws the test result on his desk along with his books. “I felt like throwing up when I looked through the tests. The cupcake you are holding looked like the one I was about to vomit this morning.” The teacher points at the  cupcake in  BamBam ’s hand . BamBam becomes a little pale as he puts the cupcake down. “Better. I don’t know why but I told you dozens of times, no food in class. What’s so hard to understand for god sake.”

“Y/N, you won’t mind meeting up for studying together again?”, Jungkook asks as he leans back with a chair. He holds his balance  by  hold ing  on  at  her table.

“Nope, but let’s talk about his later.”, she whispers to him.

“Mr. Jeon! Do you want to get hurt?” The teacher waits until his chair is on the ground again. “I feel like I am a zookeeper today. Am I in the monkey house?” 

* * *

 

When the school day finally ended  Jaebum ,  Yoongi , Mark and  Jin  walk up to Y/N. “Why are you following me like that today?” , Y/N wonders.

“Listen, this dude who came in your class today is also a new student who only makes troubles. Be careful, okay?”, Yoongi says with a calm voice. “Stay away from him. If he annoys you, call us.”

“I will be alright. Why are you so worried? It’s not like I will go to his party.”

“Party? Yugyeom said nothing about a party.”, Mark says as his eyes move to her lips.

“That is the reason he came to our class room, at least I think so.” Mark tries to speak again but she shuts him  down  before he can say one word. “I will not go, don’t worry. I have no time for that.”

“Good. I just wanted to ask you if I should walk you home. Just in case.” Y/N smiles at them.

“Like I said, I can walk on my own and for you it would  only  be an extra way. I’ll be alright. I see you guys tomorrow!”, she says as she moves away from them. The others look for a minute at her as they start to talk quietly. She looks back one more time  and puts her headphone on  before she continues to go home. As she walks down the street her phone starts to ring. She ignores it and walks on to get home on time. The phone rings one more time and she ignores it again. Not even a few seconds later she can hear steps getting closer to her from behind. It did not sound as someone is walking casually it sounded more as someone is running towards her. She hardens her grip on her backpack as she continues to walk.

“Stop ignoring us!”, Jaebum screams as he finally gets next to her. “God, we are only following you because I wanted to ask you something and you did not even pick up your damn phone.  We  even called your name as we  tri ed  to catch up with  you.” Y/N puts her headphones down to her neck as she looks at their faces. “Stop walking for a second.”

“Well, at least you both worked out.”

“I have nothing against sport, but this is inhumane. You cannot ignore us like th at .”, Jin says before he takes a deep breathe. “I cannot breathe.” Jaebum shakes his head as he is not in that much of a trouble with his breathing as Jin is. 

“I wanted to ask you one thing. The boys told me that your parents love the bakery which is owned by my aunt. Is it true?”

“The bakery I brought Jinyoung the muffins from?” Jaebum nods. “Yeah, it is one of the best bakeries around us. Why?”

“Well, lately my aunt needs a little more help on the weekends. I will help her but we need one more person.”

“Is there so much to do on the weekends?”

“Well, no. It is just each year in this month she has a special offer on the weekends. It would only be Saturday and maybe Friday evening. She already has someone for Sunday but for this Saturday someone is apparently not able to do it. Do you think you can help out? She pays fairly.”

“I would have to talk with my parents. It is only this Saturday?”

“Probably.” Jaebum starts to play with his fingers. “We are still trying to get someone to do it but we do not know if this person will make it. So, please?”

“I  will  ask my parents tonight. I will let you know  right after I talked with them .” Jaebum takes her in a strong hug.

“Thank you. Thank you so much! I don’t want to be overstressed again. It is so much to do when you stand alone in the bakery on those days.” Y/N pats his back. “I guess we will see you tomorrow then.” 

“Do you work there regularly? I have never seen you working there.”

“Sometimes. When I need extra money or when she is need of a helping hand. Oh, I am running late.”, Jaebum says as he looks at his watch. Jaebum and Jin start to walk off in the direction of the bakery.

“Are you going to the bakery?”

“Yeah, why?”, Jin asks.

“May you can tell her to prepare some muffins for us all? I will pick it up  tomorrow  in the morning.”

“Don’t worry. I get my breakfast to go mostly from there. I will pick it up tomorrow.” Jin smiles and waves at her as they continue, their walk.

* * *

 

At home the next surprise hit Y/N. The whole apartment smelled like food. Not just food, but fast food. She puts off her shoes and follows the smell. “What smells so good in here?”, she asks as she walks into the living room.

“Hey sweetie.” Her mom smiles at her brightly. “We ordered fast food, do you want some?”

“Burgers? Fries? How can I say no?” She rushes into the kitchen to get a plate. “It looks so good.”

“I thought your mother does not have to cook so much since she accompanies me to  almost  every meeting now. I hope you like it.”

“I will, thank you.” She takes a huge bite of the burger before she remembers that she wanted to talk about something with her parents. “Uh, I just remember. I wanted to ask you if it is okay if I help out the bakery down the street. It belongs to Jaebum’s aunt. It seems like they cannot find someone for this Saturday. May I can help out? Before you say anything, I will get paid so no worries needed and it is just this Saturday. Because of the special sale this month.” Her father looks at her mother before he nods.

“That is a good chance for you to work hard for your own money. Do you want to do it or does your friend say you should do it?”

“I want to help him and what is wrong with some extra money, right?”, Y/N asks as she looks at her parents. “So, is it a yes?”

“Yes. I allow it, but isn’t it every weekend of this month with their special sale?”

“Yeah, but they will probably only need me this Saturday. It is not approved by his aunt yet, but Yugyeom also worked for her once. So, I guess that should not be a big of a deal.”

“Cherie, don’t we need bread anyway?”, her father asks as he narrows his eye brows.

“Well, I would need to buy some bread and other stuff...”

“May you can talk with his aunt? Maybe she can work there this month every Saturday if she likes the work and we could talk about the payment.”

“It’s fine, really. Mom does not have to talk with her. It seems like they have someone for the other days.”

“If you say so.” Her father takes a chicken nugget and dips it into a sauce. “I called your school today. They have taken you out officially from drama. I will still not let you go to school on that day, but I have seen that your grades stayed up.”

“My grades did not drop as I have promised!”, Y/N says cheerfully.  “I told you.”

“What I tried to say is, I will loosen the rules a bit. Which means you can stay out after school but not longer than eight. When the clock strikes eight, you are home otherwise it will follow with no phone for a week or something similar. I will think about it spontaneously. If everything keeps on working well, I might let you go out even longer.” She could not believe her ears. When she sees that her parents are not joking, she gets up to hug him.

“Thank you. That is so amazing!” Her mother smiles at her as she finally sees what she wanted to see. She had almost given up on the hope that she opens herself up to him.

“I am glad you finally behave like  father and  daughter.” Y/N pulls away to put her dirty plate into the dishwasher. “Are you sure you do not want more?”

“Nope. I am satisfied.” She smiles as she writes a message to Jaebum to give him the green light. 

* * *

 

“Your parents said what?”, Youngjae asks at the lunch table.

“Yeah, isn’t this great? I have more time to hang out  with you  now.”

“That means you still won’t join us at the party at BamBam’s house?”

“Well, she might be too tired for that anyway.”, Jaebum interferes. “My aunt will tell me the latest on Friday if she will need your help or not.”  He points at her . “I am so glad that I have you as my back up.”

“Your parents do surprise me.”, Jackson says. “I thought they would never let you stay out longer.”

“I know, right? I cannot believe it either.”

“But does it mean he lets you play your role too?”, Tae questions. “Just say yes, please.” Tae crosses his fingers as he looks at his food.

“Apparently no.”, she sighs. The disappointment in Tae’s face is clear to see but he does not attempt to say anything else. “He called the school this week and they told him I am officially out of drama. Plus to that he will still call me sick in on that day.”

“Which is silly, if you don’t play.”

“I know.”

* * *

Her parents are out for dinner  tonight  which left her alone in the apartment this  Thursday  evening. She walks to the living room to watch a horror movie. She had studied almost all day, she was looking for something else to distract her from  the idea of working on Saturday.  The first try was with music, but it was not distracting enough.  She even  went through her notes but somehow her mind did not want to stop  to turn about Saturday. She decides to go for a horror movie which she has not seen yet.  Thirty minutes into the movie,  that is when  it became a little bit scary. She had her blanket ready, just in case something scary comes up ,  that she can hold it in front of her face.  The snacks are still in front of her untouched. It is for sure not a movie she will watch again.  Thankfully, before the  real  scary part would have come up, her phone starts to ring and she needs to leave the room to pick it up.

** Y/N ** : Hello?

** Jaebum ** : Hey!

** Y/N ** : What’s up?

** Jaebum ** : I told you that I will inform you asap. Well, the other person who said yes, cancelled on her. But he also cancelled Friday afternoon... Are you still up for it?

** Y/N:  ** Sure. Are we going directly after school to the bakery?

** Jaebum ** : Yes. Maybe my aunt can make us a sandwich before we start our work. I will talk to her. 

** Y/N:  ** I guess I can talk my father into this.

** Jaebum ** : Thank you so much! See you tomorrow. 

** Y/N ** : I did not say yes, but okay. Bye bye.

During the phone call she started to walk around the room. Y/N did not notice that she already sat back on the couch. As she smiles to herself, she startles as the painful scream comes from the television. The tiredness starts to get on her  as one yawn is followed by the next one . So, she decides to  call it a night.

* * *

“What do I have to do?”, Y/N asks.

“Basically, I will do the payment since you have never done it before. After that I give you the bill and you put everything on the bill into the bag and you give it to the customer.”

“That’s it?” Jaebum nods. “That will be easy!”

“Wait and see.”, Jaebum says as he handles her a work apron. “We all have to wear one.” She takes it and puts it on. “At least you thought about putting your hair back. Ready to start?”

“Ready.”, she says with a smile on her face. She is very thankful that she went to this bakery many times before. At least she knows where the half of the food is placed at. It seems too easy for her but then more and more people came in, everything starts to become a riddle. When Jaebum sees that she is already three orders behind, he helps her. He is faster with two orders while she is still stuck with the big order.

“I’m sorry, it is her first day.”, Jaebum explains to the old lady who waits patiently to get her bag. The old lady says that she does not mind to wait since everyone has to start somehow. Y/N became faster and the faster she got the more tired she bec omes . As the bakery is about to close, Jaebum and her were alone in the bakery. “You did a really good job for your first day.”

“Aww, sweet words.”, she smiles. “But honestly, it is really stressful.”

“That is why we only do it once a year. If you want you  can  fresh  yourself  up and get ready to go.” Y/N nods as she walks to the back to clean herself up a little. 

“I am ready, are you done here?” 

“Yeah. I just have to lock up the money, can you wait a second?”

“Sure.” He walks to the back of the bakery with the money in his hand and disappears for a few minutes. He comes back with two croissants in his hands. 

“Here you are. I bet you are hungry by now.” , he says as gives one croissant to her.

“Are we even allowed to take them?”

“I am always allowed to.”, he assures her with a smile as they walk outside. He turns the key in the lock of the door to lock it. “I’ll walk you home since it is not far away from here.”

“Won’t you miss your bus?”

“No, it also drives off from your bus station too.”

* * *

The work on Saturday have been easier for her even though there  are  way more customers than on Friday. She f inds  her rhythm and everything went much smoother. She was allowed to take a ten minutes break if she wanted to. The feeling of letting him stand alone in the shop felt kind of wrong, that is why she skips her break. When their day finally ended, she takes one of the chairs to sit down on. “I cannot believe you do it from time to time.”

“I got used to it I guess, but I did not start on such a busy weekend either.”, he says as he walks to the back. She sat there for two minutes as two boys are coming in and walk directly up to her. 

“Sorry. We are closed already.”, she says as she gets up. One of the boys start to laugh. 

“Such a shame. But there are better shops anyway.”, that boy says as he leaves. Y/N takes a deep breath before she walks towards the back.

“I heard some voices, was somebody here?”, Jaebum asks. 

“Yeah, but they left already.” Y/N swallows hard whilst she walks pass him. “Time to get ready.”

“Was it this weirdo again?”

“Huh?”

“Was it this weirdo again?”, Jaebum repeats. “Did somebody try to make some troubles?”

“No, not at all.  They are  gone  already .”, she says as she walks to the back to put off her work apron. The door of the bakery opens again and a familiar voice becomes hearable.  “Mom? What are you doing here?”

“Just wanted to check on you. I thought I take a look  on  how you are doing. Jaebum said you did a good job.”

“I guess his right. He must know.” Her face starts to blush as her heart starts to race. “Well, we were just about to leave. ”

“ Y our father ha d  missed a call yesterday regarding an upcoming test on Tuesday. I just wanted to make sure you get home on time so you have time to study.” Jaebum looks at her mother and assures her that she is ready to go. 

“In case we don’t need you next Saturday, you can pick up your payment every Wednesday. She is here almost any day of the week. But lately mostly on Wednesday.”

“I hope there is nothing to worry about?” Jaebum hems as he looks back up at her.

“No. Nothing to worry about at all. She finally starts to take some time off every here and then.”

“That’s good. I don’t want to stop you from closing so, I guess we should get going.” Y/N nods. “Shall we drop you off?”

“No, it’s fine. I will meet up with the football team in an hour. Have a good evening, Ma’am.” Her mother smiles as she puts her arms on her daughter’s shoulders.

“Do you still prefer to be a student or do you want to start to work now?” Her daughter rolls her eyes without saying a comment.

* * *

For a few weeks she stayed out longer and enjoyed the time with her friends. Lately, she notices that Jinyoung starts to distan t  himself from her. She tried to figure out why but no one could tell her a reason. Namjoon meant, that she should not worry. It is supposed to go back to normal soon. When the others went to the bus, she tries to talk with Jinyoung but he only answered with short answers.  She grabs his upper arm and walks in front of him.  “May we can talk in the park?”, Y/N suggests. 

“ No. I don’t really have the time. ”

“Please.”, she says with a puppy face expression. Jinyoung nods with a little smile on his face as they start walking. “I am aware that you seem to distant yourself from me. I really don’t like it. Are you still mad  at me  because you had to play the role  with her? ”

“It is not about the play, Y/N.”, Jinyoung blares out. “You are really blind, aren’t you?” Y/N is completely confused about what is going on at the moment. The last time he talked to her like this happened in the cafeteria. He takes a few deep breathes. Jinyoung shakes his head as he walks to the swings at the park. “You really did not realize anything at all?” Y/N shakes her head whilst she bites her lower lip. Her arm sleeve has been stretched out already when she starts to play with it. “Why are you nervous?”

“I don’t know what I did wrong.”, she says with a deep breathe. “I really  don’t  understand where you are coming from with this but, it confuses me the more you speak.”

“I did not mean to confuse you.” His eyes stay on the floor as he sits down on one of the swings. Y/N looks at him for a few seconds before she sits down on the swing next to him.

“Just say what you mean. I am not mad ,  no matter what it is.” He starts to  bite his lip as he wiped the sweat of his palms on his pants.

“Y/N, answer honestly.” She nods her head  as a sign that she understands the seriousness in his words .

“I promise.”

“Have you ever been in love?” For a second Y/N does not know what to say. She thought once that she has been in love but that  that boy  would have loved her back, seemed beyond imagination.  Y/N also thought that maybe, just maybe because she dreamt of having a boyfriend, her wish made her feel as she was in love with him even if she was not.

“Why are you asking me this question all of the sudden?”

“I just need to know. Have you?” Slowly he moves his body in her direction.  “Just answer my question with honesty, have you?”, he repeats even slower.

“No. I’ve never been in love before.”  The words fall quietly from her lips as she puts her hands into the pockets of her jacket.

“Oh.” , he says as his face points to the floor at his feet.

“Oh? ” She moves her head to look into his eyes. “ What do you mean with oh?” 

“Y/N.” He looks into the distance for a minute before he looks  at her . “I don’t know if I should continue on speaking with you about this. You never felt this way before.  I don’t think you will understand me. ”

“But I read a lot. ”, she says as pokes him with her index finger. “A person who reads a lot should be wise.  So, who is she?”

“Who is who?”

“This girl who seems to be stuck on your mind.” Jinyoung  tries to hold back the  smile  which starts to form on his face .

“She is wonderful. She is pretty, smart and she looks good. Her personality keeps me entertained and sometimes she is a challenge. She is not like the other girls, but she can be girly.  She looks more beautiful than I memorized her from the first time I have seen her...  Just the way she is, she seems perfect to me.”  A big smile appears on his face as he talks about her. His smile makes her smile too.

“Can someone be this perfect?” Jinyoung nods.

“ I never thought that someone could be so perfect. I don’t know how to explain her in only a few words.  She is like a living dream. You know those kinds of dreams you do not want to wake up from?” Y/N nods with  curiosity . “That dream is her.”

“I must have been blind  the whole time . I did not see her yet , I think .  At least I never saw you looking at someone like that. ”

“You saw her for sure. More often than I do.”  He bites his lip for a second. “I just never showed her what she really means to me.”

“Really? How come I don’t know who you are talking about...?”  She starts to think about a few girls she has seen around him, but no one seems to be the girl he is talking about. “I told you not to act outside of drama class. Are you acting now?”

“No, I am not.”, he says as a laugh escapes him. “Who from us, do you like the most?” Y/N’s head shoots up immediately as she turns to him. “Who from us is your most to least favorite friend?”

“Did we not just have another topic?”

“Trust me. It belongs to this. So, who is your best friend from us?”

“Do I have to?”

“Just the top 5. That is not so hard, right?”

“You have no clue how hard  that is .”, she says as she starts to swing softly. “Let’s see. Number one I think must go to Jin. I can rely on him and he is always there when I need him. Number two must be BamBam. Where else am I supposed to place someone like him?” Y/N jokes. “For number three, I think, it would be Jaebum. For number four and five I would say Mark and Tae.” 

“I am not in the top five of your list?”

“Sorry. I thought you mean if I exclude you.”

“Which number am I on your list?”

“Don’t say it like that! It sounds  so  awful.” Both laugh at each other for a few seconds. “You would be in the top three, for sure.” 

“That means, I kicked Jaebum out?”

“You seem happy about it. Can I finally see the happy you again?”

“What do you mean with  that ?”

“That is why I wanted to talk with you. I missed my friend Jinyoung, not this depressing whoever he is in front of me. Not who ignores me at lunch, ignores my jokes and so on. You used to laugh at my jokes, what happened? Is it because of her?”

“Kind of , I guess .”

“If you date someone, just say so. But don’t leave me here in the dark.”

“I  think you still don’t understand who I am talking about .”

“I really don’t.”

“ That is why  I am not no sure if I should tell you..”

“Come on, tell me.” , she begs. “At least tell me her name. Maybe I can talk with her about you.”

“You are the walking dream which I try to avoid to see. ” As soon as his words left his lips, he turns away. “ It hurts to know that you don’t like me back.”

“Who said that I don’t like you back? You are one of my best friends.  Remember? I am the gremlin you cannot get away from? ”  He does not react to her joke. “See, who are you? Jinyoung would have at least smiled at my attempt to make him laugh.” Jinyoung says nothing until he sees that it  saddens  her.

“This girl is you!  Do you get it now? ”, Jinyoung says in an almost screaming voice. “Do you have any clue how much it hurts to hear I am your friend but in the end of the day I just want to kiss you and hold you in my arms? Do you have any clue how much it hurts to know that you don’t love me back?” His eyes start to water as his voice starts to break.

“I am sorry. .. ”, Y/N says as she looks to the ground.

“Yeah, me too.”, he says as gets off the swing. “Back in the restaurant when you looked away as I looked at you, I wanted to talk to you right away. But you were with your parents therefore I’ve ordered the coke for you. The way you reacted was kind of cute... You have no clue how you made me feel. It was enough just to see you smile.” Y/N feels so bad now when she reflects on everything, that she has not been able to read , all  the signs which were there the whole time. “I hoped to see you again any day no matter when it would be. Then  Jin  made you our friend and since then I don’t know how to say it.”

“You liked me for so long?” Y/N cannot believe her ears.  There is really someone who liked her for the way she is. Someone who knows her and someone who says who loves  her.  In her mind she already closed the chapter of finding someone who would even consider dating her.

“I like d  you at the beginning, but the way you are... I really fell in love with you.” Jinyoung starts to scratch the back of his head. “I never knew how to tell you.” For a few minutes no one says a word as both look to the ground. “I don’t want to lose you as a friend just because I told you that I love you.”

“No, don’t worry.  A gremlin never leaves. ”, she says  with a wink. She speaks with  a voice that shows that her mind is somewhere else.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Huh?”

“ Your voice gave you away.”

“My voice?”

“Yeah. Your voice changes a little bit when you think about something. So,  what  were  you thinking about?”

“I thought about us. How can you be sure that you truly love me?” Jinyoung looks surprised. He definitely did not think that she would say that.

“It is the way you make me feel that shows me that you mean more to me than a friend.”

“Does the feeling make you nervous? Does it make you feel like you’re heating up? Does it  make  you want to be with someone all the time?”

“Do you feel like that?” Y/N looks into his eyes. 

“I did.” 

“What do you mean by did?”

“At the restaurant, I thought it is Jimin who made me nervous. But it was you.”, Y/N sighs. “Looking back, I realize it was you. Only you.”

“ So,  you like me more than a friend too?”

“I don’t know.” Her face turns red as she looks away. “I really don’t know.”

“It’s alright. I did not expect to tell you how I feel and to hear that you love me back... Maybe I should have kept it to myself.”

“No. It is good that I know.” Y/N gets up and steps in front of him. “Is it okay if I don’t know what to think about the way it makes me feel?”

“Yeah. I can wait until you figure it out for yourself.”


	7. Chapter 7

_ Maybe it would be good to stay away from the other’s this weekend _ , she thinks. She only says  _ ‘ _ _ h _ _ ello'  _ to her parents before she walks into  her  room. The first thing she does when she arrives in her room is lying down on her bed to take a deep breath. A long hard sigh leaves her lips as she puts her hands on her stomach. Y/N’s eyes fall shut and a smile appears on her face as she thinks about the words Jinyoung had said to her. Lost in her thoughts, a knock interrupts her dreaming.  “Not now.” 

“ Are you alright?”

“Yes, mom. I am alright!”, her voice sounded  heavily  annoyed.

“Do you want to rest?”

“I planned to do so.”

“Ah okay. I thought maybe you want to come with me to the bakery. Do you want to c hange your plan and come with me ?” Y/N sighs one more time as she sits up on her bed.

“Thanks, but I  really just want to take an afternoon nap.”

“Okay. Before I forget, we have no idea what we should eat for dinner. If you want something let me know.” ‘ _ She won’t leave me alone today, maybe I should get out of the house for a little while.’,  _ she thinks as she grabs her headphone, some money from her backpack as well as her phone and places them on her desk.  Y/N  puts her coat on and puts the items into her coat pockets. She opened the bedroom door quickly, which startles her mother a little as she did not expect her to come out of the room by now. Her mother looks at her face to read if something might be wrong, but Y/N’s smile makes her smile too.

“Mom, is it okay of I meet up with friends?”

“Sure. But  when will you be -" Y/N hugs her  mother.

“I see you later. Bye!”, her daughter says as she walks out of the apartment with  the  shoes in her hands. She sits down at the staircase as she takes her phone out. She dials  BamBam’s  number and places the phone between her jaw and her shoulder.

“ What’s up ?”

“Hey! What are  you doing?”

“I am on my way to  pick up  our dancing friends. Why?”

“Do you think I can join in?”

“Wait a minute. It’s Friday afternoon. Isn’t that your study afternoon?” For a second Y/N does not know what to say , but t he easiest thing would be to play it off.

“So?”, Y/N laughs. “Don’t you want to hang out with me?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“Good. Where are you right now?”

“In front of the school. Shall we wait here?”

“Yep. I’ll hurry up.”

“You better do! It is cold.”

“Then wait inside.”, she suggests as she stands up to walk down the stairs. “I am on my way.” The phone call ended as soon as she finished her sentence. As it is too quiet for her on the street, she opens her coat pocket to get her headphone and that is when she noticed that she took the normal headphones and not her big ones. Disappointed of grabbing the wrong one, she puts them back in. The songs that played in her head keeps her  distracted  until she walks pass the playground on which Jinyoung confessed earlier on. Her heart feels as it would jump out of her chest. She shakes her head sadly and keeps walking to not be too late as she had promised. “Hey!”, she screams as she waves at her friends.

“It is true? I thought you were joking.”, Jimin says to  BamBam  as he sees him waving back at  her .

“Nope. I was not joking.” When she places herself next to  BamBam ,  he puts his arm around her shoulder. “My partner seemed to have missed me.” She could not figure out why he looked at her the way he did but she thought it would be fun to play along.

“Of course, my favorite project partner on earth.”

“Just on Earth?”

“Well, the others cannot take your ego so, I guess just on earth.”

“My ego is not that big!”

“It fills the whole universe when you only open your mouth.”

“As you would be any better  Ms A  Grade student. How come you are such a know it all?”

“Good question. Maybe because I have ears which are connected to my brain. Which actually works very well. Hint for you, maybe you should ask your doctor to take a look at your ears  and their connection to your brain . I think your brain cannot  connect what comes from the ears since  it is only filled with air.”

“Can you believe  that  she talks to me like this?” The others only smiled along as they start to walk. 

“Where are we even going?” The question was not asked at someone  directly, she only hoped someone would answer her.

“Bowling.”,  Yugyeom  answers. “Did you ever  bowl ?”

“No. But I guess I’ll learn quickly.”

“Just like everything else, huh?”

“By that you mean?”

“I mean absolutely nothing.”  Yugyeom’s  eyes went up to the sky immediately. 

“How much does it even cost? I don’t have that much money with me.”

“Don’t worry. We can help you out.”,  Hoseok  says with a smile on his face. “It’s actually very nice to see you on a Friday outside of school.” 

“It’s nice to do something with you guys on a Friday once in a while.”  Jimin walks ahead with  BamBam  whilst she walks next to  Yugyeom . The front door of the bowling hall had two big doors which were opened by both of her friends. Once inside she takes a look around. The light, the music,  the sight of snacks. It makes her feel excited to try something new and that her friends would be  teaching her to bowl , made it even more  exciting . “Y/N?”

“Huh?”  Hoseok  starts to laugh  as he noticed she was daydreaming . 

“For the third time, what  i s your shoe size?”

“Why are you asking?”

“You need to borrow bowling shoes if you don’t own some. So, the size?”

“European 38.”

“I guess I have to google that. Yugyeom, go with Y/N and order us some snacks and drinks in the meantime. We  will  get the shoes in the meantime.”

“You mean you and Jimin only.”

“No, us three.”  Yugyeom  points at a bowling l ane . “When did BamBam walk away from us?”  Yugyeom  touches her back to give her the sign to start walking.

“Do you want something Y/N?”

“Not really.”

“Not even tortilla chips?  No specific drink? ”

“I really don’t want something in particular. You choose I help you  carrying it to the table .”

“They serve it here. No need to carry it.”

“Oh, I didn’t know.”  Yugyeom  finishes the order quickly. “Where did  BamBam  go  now ?”

“What  do you... ? Didn’t you pay attention while I ordered?” Y/N rolls her eyes at his comment. 

“I am not his babysitter.”  Yugyeom  looks back to the spot he saw  BamBam  sitting at, but he is  out of sight . “Typical.” The pronunciation sounded almost like a curse. His eyes kept moving through the hall until he finds him. “There he is.”

“ I thought  BamBam  reserved us a lane.”, Jimin  says.

“I thought so too, but look to who he is  talking  to.”

“I did not know they were coming here too.” Y/N’s eyes were still looking out for him as she follows them blindly. When she looks closely, she sees some other friends of theirs talking with  BamBam . Whilst the y  make their way to  him , she can see that the ir friends  have their back towards them except of one. At first, she only saw  Jaebum , but the laughing of  Jin  and  Youngjae  were too loud to be overheard. Mark and  Yoongi  only raise their hand to greet them. 

“So, shall we play against each other?” , Jaebum suggests.

“That’s not fair! We have a beginner with us.” , BamBam comments.  Her eyes look to the ground in embarrassment of being the only one who does not know how to play .  Her palms start to sweat as she puts them into her pocket.  Jaebum  starts to recognise how uncomfortable she feels  and that made him feel bad for her . He stands up and takes her  by her hand  and pulls her closer to make her feel less uncomfortable. 

“I don’t mind having a beginner on our team. Pick one from my team and we will take Y/N  instead .” She turns her head towards him in surprise. “So, who you want to exchange her with?”

“You really  want to  risk  to lose ?”

“I don’t risk it. We know that she would make a great cheerleader, if she does not feel comfortable to play, I won’t make her.”

“Look at that! I never saw that side on you. Y/N, you ma k e him  man up .”, Jimin jokes as he starts to laugh. His laugh started a chain of laughter between their friends. The only ones who are not laughing are  Jaebum  and Y/N.  Jaebum  turned away from her to take a snack as he looks in the face of his friends. Her eyes follow him for a few seconds before she walks to  BamBam .

“So, you seem to be the team leader who will exchange me.”  Slowly she sits down on his lap  as she places her  elbow on his shoulder. “It’s time for you to choose.” She spoke in a deep but  with a touch of flirting voice.  BamBam  starts to lick his lips as he tries to figure out what she plans to do. “ BamBam , are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah ,  I am.”,  BamBam  stutters. His eyes never leaving her  as he swallows hard . “Why are you so clingy?”

“Me? Clingy?” She shakes her head before she looks at  her  friends. “Am I clingy?”  Youngjae  starts to laugh.

“I guess someone is just not used to have a girl on his lap.” That comment turns  BamBam’s  face red. “Oh, he is getting red.”,  Youngjae  comments  again .

“Why would you say that? You are unbelievable!” Before  Youngjae  can even say anything back at him, she hits him playfully with her fist. “Ouch! Did you see that? She truly hit me!”

“Aww, does baby have an  ouchie ?” , she mocks him with a baby voice.

“Stop talking to me like that !”

“Shall Y/N take a look?” 

“Are you guys done flirting or shall we leave you alone?”, Mark asks  with a big grin on his face . If  BamBam’s  face was not so red before it looks like a red tomato by now.

“Get off me!” 

“Only if you say who will be your new player in your team.”, her voice sound ed  like a child.  BamBam  sighs deeply as the others tell him to hurry up. 

“Fine, as  long  as  I  get rid of you again.” He looks around and points at  Youngjae . “ Youngjae .” Y/N jumps up and shows him to move. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. We are not in the same team anymore.”

“How can you be so cold?”

“Who’s cold?” This voice came from behind them. To her surprise, Tae and Jinyoung are standing  right  there. “Y/N? I did not know you like bowling?” She might be listening to Tae’s words, but her eyes move to Jinyoung. 

“W ell, I am only trying today. W ho wants to be on our team and who wants to be on their team?” She points at the teams as she mentions them. Jinyoung smiles and walks to  Hoseok  his eyes not looking at her as he walks pass her. “Good, welcome to our team Tae.” She says as she smiles at him. Tae smiles back as he pulls his arm around her to give her a short hug.  In the short second he hugged her, her eyes and Jinyoung’s eyes meet. It is only for a few seconds, but it feels warm and lovely to her.

“I hope they will not kill us . T hey have some good players.”, he whispers in her ear.

“We’ve got better ones.” He raises one eyebrow  as he looks into her face .

 “Wow. Who are you? I like you more like that.” Both sit down next to each other as  Jaebum  tries to tell them a strategy he planned in the meantime. Y/N might have placed herself on a seat from where her back is turned to Jinyoung but he chose a seat on purpose to watch her.  She wonders why he did not choose to be on her team, but seeing from what happened today. It might be a better idea at the end.

“So, Y/N.”  Jaebum’s  voice was suddenly so loud that she jumped for a second and that made  Jaebum  wonder if she even has paid attention to his strategy. “Did you even pay attention to what I just said?”

“Yeah, of course.” She smiles as she takes a snack. For a  second ,  she scans their smiling faces until she notices that she has been caught lying.

“Then what did I just say?”

“I listened, but honestly I did not understand a word you  just  said. I have never been in a bowling hall before, nor did I ever hear such a strategy before.”

“Do you remember the last sentence I said?” Y/N starts to laugh as she looks at him. 

“Yeah. Do you think I forget things easily?”  Jaebum  turns his body in her direction before he takes her hand in his hands.

“Y/N, my dear  friend . I just said let’s stop eating for a few minutes and practice first .  We can eat during the game.”

“See. You asked me for one sentence. You just told me two. What do you want from me? You are confusing me…” He gets up and takes her to one of the lanes. “You will teach me?”

“I thought you listened to our conversation?”

“Yeah, but I was not sure if you meant it. I feel honoured.” She smiles as he shows her how to do it right. The boys already have stomachache from laughing to hard at her attempts, which are most of the time funny fails. “Maybe I should only cheer you on?”, she says as she places her hand on her hip whilst she tilts her head to watch another fail of hers.

“Maybe that would be better .” ,  Jaebum  looks at Tae for a little help.

“Wait a second. I do it a little different than you.” He walks over to her and puts his palms on her shoulders  from behind her . “Ready to learn a new way?” , he says quietly into her ear.

“Tae, stop pretending that you are so good! You a re not  better than us.”,  Yoongi  comments.  “Even when you say it quietly, I still can hear you.”

“I’m not doing that. Just let us do our thing here and eat a snack or so.”

“Did anybody even listen when I said no snacks until the game?”  Jaebum’s  try to get eye contact with any of his team members , but he  fail s  miserably. Tae takes his time to talk her through before she tries it again. Her heartbeat was getting faster as she noticed Jinyoung stares. 

“Don’t look at him. Look at the goal you have.”

“Okay.”

“Deep breathes and then let it roll.” She nods in agreement. Y/N takes the bowl in her hand and walks to the lane. She tries to focus on what Tae said to her before she takes a swing. A loud boom and a few screams from her friends start to scare her for a second until she noticed that the ball went into the wrong direction. “Are you trying to kill us?”, Mark  says as he gets up . His voice was loud, too loud.

“I only swung it once. My fingers must be wet, I guess. I’m so sorry.” She stops to speak as she hears  BamBam’s  laughter. Embarrassing is nothing comparing to what she feels right now. She picks the bowling  bow l up one more time and without much thinking she bowls, this time into the right direction. “Yes! Yes! I got it now!”, she screams in joy. 

“How? I mean it literally, how? You were horrible just a few minutes ago. ”

“I guess I am the better teacher.”, Tae says proudly.  “Good job!” He gives Y/N a high five as Jimin walks to them.

“Beginner luck. I don’t think you can do it again.”

“Don’t be that rude to her.”

“Y/N, if you get them all again, you will play for your team. If you miss you won’t play, deal?” Y/N bites her lips nervously as she tries to figure out what would be the better choice. 

“I did not know that you are the leader of my team.”,  Jaebum  says as he gets up. “Yah,  BamBam ! You lost your player. Do you give him to us or do you need him back?” Jimin shakes his head  whilst  BamBam  grins .

“Why did you even teach her how to bowl if she will not play anyway?”  Jaebum  looks stunned at Jimin’s words. 

“Are you trying to provoke me?”

“No. Just thought it  only  should make you think.” Jimin grins as he walks back to his team.

“What was that about?”, Y/N wonders. “Is he always like that?”

“Maybe that’s their plan, but for those kinds of acts, they usually send Jinyoung. Whatever.”  Jaebum  turns back to his team. “We got this and we are the only one with a beautiful cheerleader.” 

The game went one for almost four hours and still nobody wants to quit. Even if she does not play, she enjoys  the time  with her friends. A vibrating sound comes from her coat . The screen showed that it is her mother who calls  her.

“Hello?”, she  answers  as she picks it up. Whilst her mother asks her for how much longer she plans to stay out, she walks to the entrance of the bowling hall. “I don’t know yet. They seem not to want to quit, is it a problem?”

“No, not at all. It’s just that  your friend  Jungkook is here. He said he came over for studying, did you forget about him?”

“Today? I thought tomorrow.”

“Uhm, which does not matter since he is here already.”

“Can you tell him to come here? I will study with him at the library at school before I go home.”

“Sure. It is just not very friendly to forget on a friend.”

“I will apologize to him. Don’t worry. Bye!” She slaps her palm against her own forehead.  _ I am pretty sure I said tomorrow. Why would he come over anyway without calling me first?  _ Her mind starts to race as she plays with her phone. She puts her phone into her pocket and walks back to her team.

“Everything alright?”,  Jin  asks carefully.

“Yeah. It is just that Jungkook is at my place. I am pretty sure I said let’s study on the weekend.”

“You know that they have a training this Saturday, right?”

“No, no one told me.”

“So, are you leaving him alone at your place  or  will he come here?”

“I told my mom to send him to us. We will study later at the library.”  To their surprise, the other team is coming to them.

“So, we decided to call it quits. We are only 9 points behind. Let’s say you won?”,  Yugyeom  suggests.  “Honestly, my arm starts to hurt.”

“I guess you did not have any chance anyway, huh?”,  Yoongi  smiles.

“There is nothing to smile about. You are usually bad in this, how come that you are all so good so suddenly?” Her team starts to look at each other as they start to laugh. “You practiced without anyone else? Are you so eager to win this thing, I cannot believe  this. ”

“Believe it.”

“Okay, we have some snacks left. We would finish it before we leave.”

“We have to wait for Jungkook  anyway. ”

“Jungkook?”,  Jinyoung  asks.

“Yeah. Y/N forgot about him.” , Mark adds.

“Hey! To my  defence , I thought it would be tomorrow.”

“ Uh . Are you going to study?”

“Yeah. I guess, we will go the library at school.”

“Cool. Then I can go with you and I can finally read the book I wanted to read for a while.”

“Which book?”,  Yoongi  asks.

“A book about poems. Why?”

“Just asking.” 

“Don’t pretend like I do not read books.”

“I know you do, but I did not know that you read the books from the library.”

“ Well, now you do .” He says as he looks at her. “Maybe we should get going. It would not be fair if he walks all the way just to walk the half way back.” Y/N nods in agreement as she packs her stuff. 

“How much do I own who?”, she asks  Hoseok .

“Keep it. There will be a time when I need you to help me out.” She smiles as she changes her shoes. 

“How long will you guys stay?”

“An hour or two. Then we will have to go home to get ready for a party.”

“Ah, okay.”

“Do you want to come to the party?”

“You know I can’t.”, she sighs as she puts her coat on. “I am ready to go, are you too?”

“Yep. Let’s go.” They bring the bowling shoes back and wave a last goodbye to their friends. “It’s a bit cool tonight, don ’t you think?”

“Yeah, it is.” Their eyes move along the floor as no one knows what to say. “I think we played it cool in there, do  you think someone noticed ?” He smiles as he looks at her with his hands in his pocket.

“ No, they probably noticed nothing. W e are good actors, aren’t we?” He looks behind them to see if any of their friends might have followed them, when he noticed nobody did, he places his arm around her shoulder and pulls her closer. “I know you don’t know how you feel about me, but is it okay if I do such things when no one is around?”

“It’s fine. It feels really nice.”, she says as she looks up to him. 

“Good.”, he says with a warm smile. The silence is no more uncomfortable, it is more a pleasant feeling. When Jinyoung discovers Jungkook, he puts his arm off her. 

“What’s wrong?” He points in Jungkook’s direction. Jungkook does not seem to have seen them, until they are almost in front of each other. “Jungkook , hey ! We thought it might be better, if we come towards you.”

“Uh huh. Good. Well then, let’s get inside.” Jungkook does not wait for a reaction as he turns away to walk inside. 

“Is it just me or does he look a bit sad ? ” Jinyoung does not answer as he starts to follow Jungkook. “Jungkook?”, Y/N asks as she sees that the library is empty. “Jungkook? Where are you?”

“Over here! Just follow my voice.” The voice sounded close but not so close. “I see you.” Y/N turns her head to her left and starts to smile.

“There you are. No one except from us is here.”

“I noticed that.”

“I meant to say, why are we sitting not at one of the tables at the front?”

“That is the spot we always learn at. Do you want to change tradition?”

“That is not a tradition.” She says as shakes her head. “What will we study?”  The seat of the opposite side of Jungkook is taken by Y/N as Jinyoung takes the seat next to her.

“We should study for the next test, I got everything here.” Jungkook unpacks his backpack together with two cans. “Sorry, Jinyoung. I did not know you would be coming too.”

“Maybe one of you wants to share with me, if I get thirsty?” Both agree and turn their heads back to the notes and books which Jungkook has put out. “I will go and look for the  one  book, I think I saw it somewhere over there.” Jinyoung smiles and walks towards the shelf at the front.

“I will be quick because I do not know when he will return.” Y/N looks surprised as Jungkook starts to whisper.  "I am surprised to see you with him.”

“Why are you surprised?”

“I heard your conversation at the park. I know about it.”

“You know what?”

“That he seems to have fallen for you, did you do?”

“Wait, how did you hear us?”

“Does that matter? I followed you because I knew it is your ‘I study until Friday is over-Friday’  and you said we will study this weekend . I  also  wanted to see if you are alright,  because  you looked pale  after your conversation with him .” He takes a look in Jinyoung’s direction before he looks back to her. “I did not mean to bring it up, but do you  love him back ?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“It means that I don’t know.”  Jungkook sighs as he feels as she would hide something from him.

“Why did you think it was Jimin?”

“What?  Are you changing topics again? ”

“You thought it was Jimin,  I heard you saying  it at the park. Why did you think it was him?”

“I only saw Jinyoung ’s back. I thought it might have been Jimin, but I think I was wrong.”

“Will you give him a chance  though ?”

“I thought about it ... I just don’t know. C ould you keep it to yourself?  At least for now until I figure it out? ”

“Y/N.”

“Please. I don’t know how to handle it yet...” He takes her hand slowly in his as he sees Jinyoung is coming back to their table. 

“You cannot let me down like that! Don’t say you will try to teach me! You have to teach me.” Y/N’s eye brows  narrow until she sees that Jinyoung is back.

“Alright, alright. Let’s do that, but I should not be home to late, got it?”

“Thank you. Okay, this here. What the hell does that mean?”

“It means  you should  take better notes. I can barely read it.”

“Funny, I don’t understand  it  and you can’t read it. Aren’t we a good team?” Both start to laugh until Jinyoung looks at them with a serious face.

“Shush! I try to read.”

“One more thing, Jinyoung.” , Jungkook says as he looks at his book.

“What is it?”

“We will walk her home together, right?”

“Is it necessary for you to walk an extra walk?”

“Well, I could sleep at your place and go home in the morning.”

“Nothing against you sleeping at my place, but don’t you think you want to shower or so?  What about the party? ”

“Maybe  Yugyeom  can bring some stuff over and we both stay at your place?  I have practice tomorrow. I cannot join the party if I want to be good. ” 

“Of course.” , he fakes a smile as h is eyes move to her. “Y/N, do you want to stay at my place too? I obviously became a hotel.”

“Funny that you ask her that, even though you know it will be a no.”

“Politeness is never wrong.”  Y/N drops a heavy sigh as she looks at them.

“Alrighty. Let’s continue with  ‘what did Jungkook write’, okay? Your writing is a mess.” 

“What does that supposed to mean? It’s not so bad.”

“Really? Okay, what does this over here mean?”

“Okay. Maybe it is just not written perfectly.”

“Jungkook.”

“Okay, let’s study from the books first and I will rewrite my notes.” Y/N smiles as she opens the book. “Why has almost everything a red or yellow mark?”

“Yellow is for ‘I think I understand’ and red is for ‘I seriously understand nothing’.”

“Oh Kook.”, she sighs as she looks at Jinyoung. The book that Jinyoung holds in his hand is getting lower and lower by the time they speak. “Shouldn’t you keep your eyes in the book?”

“Then stop distracting me!”

“We are not even doing anything.”

“Exactly. Either it is laughter or small talk. More focus on your work instead of watching me reading a book.” He puts his index finger on the book page he is reading on and sits himself to the other side of the table next to Jungkook. “Maybe you will need an extra help?”

“ Y/N is helping me like always.  My grades thankfully even went up because of her.”

“You can be thankful that  Jin  introduced her to us, huh?”, he says as  he  moves  closer to  Jungkook.

“Why are sitting suddenly next to me now?”

“Am I not allowed to?”

“No, it’s fine. I just wondered why.”

“Less talking, more focus. I have my reasons. Don’t you worry about me.” When she looks at him with a soft smile, he winks at her.

* * *

“Hello I am home! I am sorry for being la-”, she stops talking as she can hear loud laughter coming from the living room. “What’s going on in here?”

“Your home!”, her mother slurs. The fast movement of her to get up, makes her drop back to the ground.

“Are you drunk?”

“ Ey ,  ey . I usually don’t drink but I allowed myself one drink of this wine your father received from his customer. It is really good. I would let you try it but there is nothing left...” She picks up  an  empty bottle and shakes it, to show her daughter that there is nothing left.

“That is the other bottle my cute silly wifey.” He takes another sip from a wine bottle next to him. “Aren’t you home early? I said you are allowed to go out until eight pm. Am I mistaken, mon  cherié ?”  Y/N looks at her phone and it showed that they must have lost the feeling for time. It has been already almost ten o’clock.

“No. You are not.” Her mom leans in to give her father a peck. “She is just on time.”

“If you don’t mind, I would like to take a shower and go to bed. Good night!” Her parents slur a good night before they start to laugh again. As she puts her stuff on her desk, she feels a vibration in her coat.  _ ‘I will check later who wants something from me’ _ , she thought. Her mind is full of ifs and buts  which makes  the urge to check her phone  even stronger .  _ ‘Okay, just one short look before I take a shower. I will not answer, only read.’  _ It’s a text message from Jinyoung.

** Jinyoung:  ** I hope you are not in big troubles.  I still feel glad I told you. You don’t need to answer me, I just wanted to let you know that you are on my mind.

** Jinyoung:  ** Sweet dreams, I love you

Her heart starts to beat so fast and so loud, that she almost forgot what she just wanted to do. That she will sleep well tonight, would have been an understatement.


	8. Chapter 8

“Good morning!”, Y/N says happily to her mom as she walks into the kitchen. Even though she spoke in a quiet tone, it is still too loud for her mother’s ears. Her mother touches her own head quickly as her face expresses the headache she seems to feel.

“Sweetheart, please. Be a little quieter.”, her mother whispers. “I feel like my head is about to explode .” Y/N chuckles for a few seconds. 

“Could it be because of the wine?”, Y/N asks with puppy eyes as she takes a sip from the orange juice. Her mother’s face already looked dark, but it is nothing compared to what it looks like now. The eyes of her mother are looking like there are sparks within them.  Usually her mother is never easily angry,  but this time,  Y/N must  ha ve crossed the line.

“I think you should not talk to your mother like that! I thought I raised you better than that.” The voice she used might not be loud, but it sounded like a warning. A warning to not mess with her today.

“ I’m s orry. I just never saw you like that.” The voice of Y/N sounded very apologetic even though she is still more than amused to see her mother in that kind of state. “You were the one who told me not to drink too much alcohol at any occasion.”

“Uh. That may sound like me, but I am not sure when I said those words to you... You just gave me an idea.” With a finger in the air, her mother walks to the kitchen counter to take a pen and some paper. “You will do the grocery shopping. I  will  give you a list of what we need.” The list is not that long so far and seems to be easily done. “Get your purse, I get the money in the meantime.” Her eyes widen as her stomach makes it self-notable.

“ But  I did not have my breakfast yet.”

“Buy yourself something on the way.”, she comments as she is about to walk out of the room. “See, I could be unfriendly to you too. I guess we both don’t like it that way.” Y/N sighs deeply as she walks to her room to look for the purse she is thinking of . It must be somewhere within her closet, she  knows that, but where is the question . She only owns two purses but still she manages to put them away too well. “Here is the money and the list. Take your time and come back quietly. We will take another nap until our headache will stop.”

“What about lunch and dinner?”

“We’ll order in probably. Maybe you should eat at a restaurant, because I am not sure if we will order at the end. I fell sick just thinking about food. ” Her mother mumbles as she walks out of her room. Y/N takes the list into her hands to take a look of where she will have to go to. As there wasn’t much on the list anyway and there was nothing on the list which needed to be in the fridge or in the freezer quickly, she could take more time than she would need. She walks towards her closet to take a look of what she could wear. The eyes fell immediately to the blue dress.  _ I could wear it, but if there is a wind and with the groceries... Okay, what else?  _ After looking through her closet for over half an hour, she decides to go with basic. Which means in her case, a light blue jean and a grey shirt. As she will have to wear her green jacket, she picks the black bag because she remembers that somewhere within this closet are her new sneakers which are also black. Once found, she puts them on in her room. 

** To the  ** ** chat group ** ** :  ** Is anyone available who wants to help me to spend the day grocery shopping?

No one answered within ten minutes, which makes her think that she will have to carry the bags for herself. Before she leaves the apartment building, she walks into the basement to get the embarrassing shopping  basket with wheels  that her mother bought. It has two small wheels and  it is  completely  brown.  Lit erally t wo things that she hates combined in one.  At least her arms would not fall off until she  would be back, she thinks. She also hopes, that someone might have answered her  in the meantime. She checks her phone  again to see if she has received such a message. Thankfully someone answered.

** Youngjae:  ** Where do you have to go?

** Y/N:  ** at first , I need  to get myself some  breakfast and then I have to go to the small supermarket which is near  our school and then  to Jaebum’s aunt’s bakery . That is pretty much it.

The phone may  say Youngjae is typing but it disappears before she receives an answer. As there is no sign of him answering her back any time soon, she decides to write  her disappointment .

** Y/N:  ** Just say if you don’t want to but don’t leave me in the dark… :/

** Jaebum:  ** I could help you too. But only if you come to the bakery first . You can have some breakfast here and then I will help  you  with the rest  when my  work ends in almost half an hour – are you coming?

** Y/N: ** Just to not distract you for too long, I’m coming :)

Jaebum only answers with a smile back with no further text. Y/N starts to walk towards the bakery immediately.  Shopping for groceries is something she has not done yet by herself. Most of the time she helped by filling the shopping cart but she never had to do that with a budget. Especially when there is no credit card in case, she is over the budget.

* * *

“Hello!”, Y/N greets as she walks into the shop. “Pretty empty today.”, she says as she comes closer to the  expenses. Jaebum looks pretty relaxed as he cleans the expenses, no sense of stress. As he looks up, a smile appears on his face.

“Yeah, the most customers have been here already .”, he sighs. “Therefore, I can clean a little bit around here .”

“Not that I would complain , but why are you only  working for a few hours today? You usually work a whole day,  a half at least.” He starts to laugh as he shakes his head.

“Well,  the  delivery guy brought the wrong ingredients. My aunt followed him with her car to get the right ones. I am only here until she comes back.” Jaebum takes his gloves off and puts the cleaning materials away. “She wants to make sure to get the right ones. You know the usually ingredients she would use. You know her well enough by now. Nothing is as good as the products that she always uses.”

“Uh, huh.”  When  Y/N looks  out of the window, she realizes a delivery car  which stops directly in front of the shop. “Is that the delivery guy you were talking about?” The curiosity in her voice was clear to hear.

“That’s him.” Jaebum looks at his aunt and back at Y/N. Somehow, he did not know what to do. He does not want to leave a friend standing alone in the bakery shop but he also does not want to see his aunt bringing the ingredients in all by herself, even if the delivery guy helps her.

“Fine.”, she sighs with a soft smile on her face. “Go.” She has seen this face expression on Jaebum before, that face which shows that he wants to help, but when he is unsure if he should.

“What ?”, he asks with a stunned face. As his mind tries to wrap itself around her words.

“Help your aunt. I will watch the cash desk for you.” Jaebum starts to smile as he walks pass her quickly.

“Thank you , Y/N !”, he  screams as he  walks faster and faster outside to help her to bring the ingredients inside.

“Yeah yeah…”, Y/N mumbles to herself. She takes a seat which is the closest one to the expenses and from where she has the best overview of the shop. Once the last box of ingredients was brought into the warehouse, his aunt comes towards her.

“Hello my dear. Sorry that I just ignored you, but I’ve been already ahead with my thought of what I have to do next.  Jaebum is free to go, but he said he will wait until you had a breakfast? You should not leave the house without breakfast at your age. I hope your mother won’t find that out.”, she says with a touch of  seriousness .

“I actually have to do the grocery shopping today. Jaebum said he would help me doing so.”

“I know . He informed me about it already .” 

“Uh there you are, auntie. I just wanted to ask you what we can offer my friend since there is no breakfast on the card this morning.” 

“As you are the only one here,  I will make something special for you. Y/N, is there anything you don’t like?”

“No. I eat pretty much anything.” His aunt nods as she leaves her table.

“So, how come you have to do the groceries? Normally they would not send you out to do that by yourself .”, Jaebum asks as he sits down  at the table.

“Well my mother and  her husband had a bit too much to drink and I guess their bodies do not take it very well.” She shows the sign of drinking with her hand and replays the headache of her mother this morning.

“Uh, parents.”, Jaebum jokes. “Thank you , auntie.” His  aunt places a tray in front of them. Two filled croissants. Each filled with ham and cheese and some vegetables. It looks almost like a sandwich, but to her surprise it does not looks as bad as she would have imagined a sandwich-croissant.

“Thank you very much . It looks lovely .”

“Nothing to thank for, let me know when you  need anything else. I have to bake some  pastries.”

“We will let you know.”, Jaebum says. Y/N takes a bite of her filled croissant as she remembers that football practice should be today. She waits a few more minutes, in hope that he will bring it up himself.  His eyes are only fixed on his croissant, as the time passes, she wonders if he would even bring it up.  But when she notices that the waiting would be for nothing, she decides to ask  him directly  about it.

“ Jungkook mentioned something about practice. Shouldn’t you be practicing  today too? Does it start soon?”

“First of all , it’s  not now, it’s later. Secondly it’s an additional training to which I said I won’t come.” Jaebum takes a huge bite as his aunt brings them a glass of water. Both thank her for it as she looks at him one more time.

“Why did you say that you won’t come?”

“I just don’t feel like it . Maybe I should go back to dancing since Jinyoung left the dance group .”

“Because you don’t feel like it ?”, she asks as the last sentence he spoke, goes through her head. “Wait, Jinyoung is no longer in the dance group ?”

“Yeah. Did I just speak a different language?”

“Nope. But that  does not sound like you and no one told me that he is not in the group any longer.” Jaebum sighs deeply as he looks at her  wrist. “What’s the real deal ? I feel like your hiding something.”

“ Are you a mind reader or something?”

“No, you just seem to be bothered by something.”

“Okay, you are right. I was so bad on the field at the game. It is still bothering me. I don’t even want to know how many jokes were made about me after the game.” His face looked so happy but now his face starts to look sad. That is definitely not what she wanted to reach.

“But you guys won!”

“Yeah, just because of the other players.” Y/N sighs as she fails to lift his mood.

“I don’t know how important their opinion is, but for me, you were amazing. You were also one of the other players to me.  From my seat, I could not read a number on  anyone's back.  Does it matter in sport who makes the points when it is about the win for the team?”

“You know nothing about this sport or any sport,  do you?” She shakes her head as an answer. “How could you  even  judge me ?”

“Uh, that did hurt. Yep, that went deep.”, she jokes. Her acting was on point, which made Jaebum laugh. “We can take a walk towards the school, at least we could meet up with Jackson and Jungkook before practice starts.” 

“Fine. But I won’t join it today.” Y/N starts to laugh at his stubbornness. As they finish their breakfast, she reminds herself that she came to the bakery for another reason in the first place.

“Wait, before we go. I almost forgot !” Y/N takes her stuff and walks towards his aunt. “ Do you have the pumpkin bread at the moment available?”

“For your mother I guess?”

“Yes.”, Y/N laughs. As she packs the bread up, Y/N takes out her money. When his aunt wanted to give her the change, she shakes her head with a smile. “The rest is for you.”

“You should take the change.”

“You already gave me a breakfast for free. That is  the  only way I can say thank you if you do not let my pay for my breakfast. Have a nice weekend !”, Y/N assures as she smiles back at her.

“Jaebum, wait a second.” His aunt says as she runs to the back of the shop to grab a  sport  bag. “Listen to her. There is a reason why you took your  workout clothes with you.”, her aunt comments.

“ Were you listening to our conversation? ”

“No. You just spoke a bit too loud.”, she answers with a bad  excuse . “When the shop is this empty, every conversation is louder as usual, you know.”

“Uh huh. Yeah, but-”

“Take it with you. Just in case.”  He hugs his aunt as he takes the bag from her.  His aunt waves her goodbye as they leave her bakery. Y/N grins as she looks at him.

“ What?  She’s like a second mom sometimes.”

“ She’s just  too sweet. I like her a lot.”

“Of course , you do .  You and everyone she seems to meet.”, Jaebum comments as he smiles. “ So , you wrote supermarket?”

“Yeah, but when does the practice start?”

“In a little less than an hour, why?”

“Because you will join it.”

“You can’t make me.”

“I guess I will.”

* * *

“I can't believe  you made me come here.” Y/N claps on his shoulder.

“Well, I told you I will.” Jaebum laughs as he shakes his head. “I should have made a bet with you.” As Jaebum wants to say something back, the voice of a friend becomes hearable.

“Hello, hello. I thought I won't see you here today.”, Jackson says with a smile on his face. “Hello our good luck charm.” He pulls her into a hug as soon as he had a chance to.

“Hello Jackson.” He picks her up from the ground for a short time before he puts her back down.

“What about Jungkook?” , Jaebum asks. “Did he not come with you?”

“ No, but he should be in the dressing room already. Let’s  hurry or the coach will yell at us.” Jackson puts his arm around his shoulder to drag him along. “Y/N, take a seat at the  tribune in the meantime. We'll be on the field soon.”

“Okay. Don't take too long .”, Y/N screams after them. She watches them walk off as she hears someone calling her name. “Oh, someone who does not know how to answer texts.”, she says in an  annoyed voice.

“I wanted to answer, but my phone died. I had to wait until I  had thirty percent .”, Youngjae explains. “ I saw Jaebum answered you and as they have training today, I thought I might look for you here.”

“Nice story.  But you are really smart to look for me here .”, she says as she hugs him. “I’m glad you’re here now.”

“ That is no story . So, did you already  go to the supermarket?” , he says as he ends their hug.

“Nope. I  came with Jaebum  after having my breakfast at the bakery. That is everything I accomplished so far. By the way, Jackson said I should wait at the  tribune for them.”

“Well, let's watch their practice  and then we could go for lunch with them and then we could go to the supermarket.”

“Sounds great.” Youngjae looks at her shopping basket and moves his finger to point at it. “What is up with that?”

“Well, either I  drag  the groceries home in bags or  I do that  on two wheels. Don't judge me.”

“Of course, I don’t. I would never judge a  grandmother.” She hits his shoulder  almost as it was a reflex. “Do you want to become a boxer?”

“You mean the dog breed or the sport?”

“Forget it.”, Youngjae says  with his voice lowered as he starts to walk. “Where shall we even sit?” The tribunes look so big when they are empty. At the last game they looked much smaller than they do now. Her eyes wander through the empty seats as she looks for a good spot to have a good overview over the field.

“Somewhere in the middle. Like over here, that spot seems nice.” Before they even can sit down on the bench, someone is already screaming loudly. As they take a look who is screaming this loud, they can see that Jungkook is the first person on the field. “Hey!”, she screams as she waves at him. Jungkook’s face light up as he starts to smile back. He approaches them straight ahead.

“I actually thought they were joking when they told me you were here. Hey Youngjae!” Youngjae only waves for a second before he puts his arm back down.  In surprise, he looks at her.

“Why does no one want to believe when you spend time with us?”, Youngjae questions her.

“Don’t ask me. I have no answer for that either. ”, she sighs. 

“Will you watch our full practice?”.

“Depends on how long  it will be .”, Y/N answers.

“Around one to two hours. Our coach doesn’t want to make a long  training  session today.”

“Well, if it gets to boring,  I still have Youngjae.” His coach starts to call out names which is the moment Jungkook starts to run towards his coach. “ How much battery does your phone have?” Youngjae takes his phone out of his pocket to check.

“25 percent. Yours?”

“78 percent.” She  opens her purse to take out her phone and headphones.

“You guessed? Show me,  do you really have 78 percent?” Y/N unlocks her phone and to her surprise  she has 82 percent.  The next thing she grabs are her headphones which she needs to unwrap.

“Well, four percent more than I thought. Take this earpiece, I’ll take the other one.”  Youngjae takes her earpiece and puts it into his ear without any questions as she plugs the headphones into her phone.

“I hope I like  the same music  as you do.” Y/N shakes her head as she opens the YouTube app before she handles the phone to him. “I still don’t know your favorite artists.”

“Whatever you want to hear, I guess it will be okay.”  Youngjae  takes the phone and starts to search for his YouTube channel to play his playlist of his favorite  songs. “The first  song  does not sound so bad.” Youngjae laughs as they turn the attention back to their friends.

* * *

As their friends are leaving the field, a message pops up on her phone which is still in  Youngjae’s hand. Y/N seems to have missed to hear the  notification  tone as she has her earpiece out of her ear already and she does not react as she would want to check her phone. She can see an amused look on Youngjae’s face which makes her wonder why.

“What? Don’t say you watch some sick things with my log in.”

“I don’t.”, he answers as he bites his lips. “But why does Jinyoung send you a text like that?”

“Is Jinyoung not allowed to text me?”

“That's not what I mean.” In that very moment she reminds herself from the texts from last night. She takes the phone from him and closes all the apps on her phone before she puts into her bag together with her headphones.  Thankfully he did not open the messenger app.

“ Then tell me, how did you mean it?”

“Why would he send you a good morning text with a have a good day message.” Nervously she starts to gather her things together. “It’s almost lunch time .”

“You must have misread the text.”

“Check for yourself if you don't believe me.” 

“ Fine .” Y/N's mind starts  to race with herself as she tries to find a reason for the message.  That he felt the need to use a pet name was more than idiotic to her.  “Uh, maybe he sent it to the wrong person.”

“Which would make sense.” Youngjae’s mind seems to drift off as his mind seems to think about something.

“Would it?” Youngjae looks confused at her as she grabs her shopping basket. “I mean, yeah it would.”

“Why are you so weird about it? Did no one talk with you about his behavior?”

“Which  kind of behavior?”

“So, no one did?” Youngjae gets up to see if she is acting or if she truly means it. “Are you acting?”

“Speak up.”, she says as she places her hands on her hips. “I have no time to for that.” He starts to lick his lips as he puts his hands in his pockets.

“We think he is dating someone, but we don't know who. Have you seen  him  with someone else?”

“No. I wished I could help  you  here, but as you just realized I knew nothing until now.” Youngjae nods until he  moves his shoulder  up  just to let them drop. “Whatever, he will tell us when he  feels like it.”

“You don't care. Do you?” Y/N starts to laugh. “You are the only one who does not want to know if we are right or not.”

“I care more about to where we will go for lunch.”

“How about Plate's?”

“What is Plate's?”

“You haven’t been there yet? Okay we will go there.”, he says as he grabs her by the wrist. “Let’s go.”

“What kind of restaurant is that?”

“The restaurant with the best burgers, best black noodles and  the best of  everything else.” That he is getting short on breath as he walks down the stairs whilst talking would be an understatement.

“I truly have a picture in my head when you say anything else.”

“For example?”

“Human steak.” His steps stop immediately as he throws a disgusted face at her.

“You’re gross.”

“Thanks. Let's keep going.”

“Don't you want to wait for the others?”

“ I meant that w e'll wait there where you found me. Now, move your ass and keep walking.”

“Sometimes you’re a pain in the ass. Did someone tell you that?”

“Uhm. No. I guess you are the first one .”

“I somehow have troubles in believing you.” Y/N shakes her head as  they start to walk towards the entrance of their school .

* * *

Jungkook wanted to sit next to her in the restaurant, but Jackson pushed him into the corner. H e does not know why but he thinks he knows the reason for his  wish to sit next to her – the feeling of guilt. He only can think about the little secret between her and Jinyoung as they start to eat . How much he wants to tell Youngjae to not be so close with her. How much he would like to tell  Jaebum to not always be by her side because it will make Jinyoung jealous. There are barely any chances for him to help his friend without saying their secret out loud. Besides, Jinyoung does not know that he knows. Wouldn’t the blame fall on her, he wonders. Jungkook tries to clear his mind as well as he could, but it is so god damn hard not to say anything to anyone. The only person he could at least whisper to sits too far away for him to do that. As he looks back to  Youngjae , he can see that he ordered a cake in the meantime. “Okay. You were right. This food is amazingly good.”, Y/N says to  Youngjae as she is half through her burger. “It’s not even that expensive.”

“I told you so.” A wink by Youngjae follows his comment. Jungkook immediately swallows his food to put her attention on him. “You should try my cake. I will leave you piece to try.” Y/N nods with a grin.

“Y/N, did you try the fries?”, Jungkook asks.

“Have you seen any on my plate?” Jungkook starts to laugh in embarrassment as he looks at his plate.

“H ere t ry them.”, Jungkook says as he holds his  plate up to make it easier for her to grab some. “And?”

“They really good. But what can go wrong with French fries?”

“A lot.” This answer comes quickly and almost mis understandable quick . Before Y/N can even ask what he had just said, Jackson interrupts her.

“I guess someone has still some nightmares about the bad ones?”, Jackson comments mockingly.

“Hey, there were really oily and disgusting. That was a crime on French fries!”

“ Calm down. No need to become so loud.” Jackson takes another bite from his food before he turns to  his other friend .  “Youngjae, are you helping her now or not?”

“I will help her and in case you did not understand me on the way here . My phone died.”

“Your phone always dies in such moments.”

“What can I do about it?”

“You could charge it.”

“As I would have not thought about it.”

“If he backs out, tell me. I don’t mind helping you.”

“Thanks Jackson. May you want to come with us anyway ?” Jaebum’s smile disappears slowly from his face from a second before he replaces it with a fake one.

“Do you need  ano t her man t o help you?” Y/N starts to laugh at his words. Those words came off his lips so proudly as he is as strong as Hulk.

“It is just that my parents will order in their dinner therefore I thought I could eat somewhere else for dinner. I had breakfast with Jaebum today, lunch with you all and this restaurant was suggested by Youngjae. I thought you might want to suggest another restaurant for dinner .” Jaebum’s eyes wonder to Jungkook who seems to fake a smile too. As Jaebum starts to think about Jungkook’s silence which makes him wonder if something is wrong. Once Jungkook looks up from his drink, he takes the chance to ask if he is okay but Jungkook only nods as he looks tired towards the others. Jackson is still thinking about Y/N’s request as he drinks his water down in one go.

“Well, I would have an idea where we could go to for dinner .” 

“If I would not know that you have a home, I thought you would be homeless.”, Jaebum jokes.

“Huh? How dare you.” The voice sounded so high pitched whilst her hand lies on her chest. Her overacted face made it even funnier for everyone on the table.

“This weird shopping bag of yours and eating outside of your home all day .”

“I see from where you are coming with this, but nope. Let’s finish this food and then we will do my grocery shopping for my mom.” It almost sounded like a cheer which seems to get only Jackson excited. The other friends  of hers  shake their head as they look down embarrassed .  “I’m sorry. Was that a bit too loud?”

* * *

Quietly she tries to get into the apartment as she unlocks the door.  The only thing she  is taking off are her shoes, she does not even  think about taking off  her jacket as she walks towards the kitchen with the shopping basket. She heard someone mumble, but she could not hear who as she comes into the kitchen, she can see her father sitting with an obvious migraine.

“ Welcome home.  I see you took your mother’s shopping bag?”, her father asks.

“Yeah, that is easier for carrying it all.”

“Good. I almost told your mother not to buy that  thing  but it seems to be used for good use.” She unpacks the shopping basket as his eyes wander back to her. “What took you so long?”

“My friends helped me and we went for lunch and dinner.”

“ Sounds nice. Did you have fun?”

“Yeah, I did.” The joy that she feels is readable all over her face. He walks over to give her a short hug.

“ Thank you for taking over our responsibility today .”, he says as he is about to leave the kitchen.  “But I cannot only be a nice dad . I have to remind you, that you had fun yesterday and today . You will stay at home to study tomorrow .”

“I already planned to do so.”, she admits. Her smile is still there, the funny moments of today are still filling her mind more than any responsibility she wants to think of at the moment.

“ I knew I can count on you .”, he says proudly. Once the ingredients were put away, she walks into her room. She takes the jacket off and hangs it over her chair.  The vibration of her phone has got her attention and almost automatically she picks it up.

“Hello ?”

“Hey, is there a reason why you don’t text me back all day?”, Jinyoung asks.

“No. But you saw the  chat group , didn’t you?”

“Of course, I did.”

“Then be prepared of what’s coming next.”

“Okay.”

“The good morning angel text popped up as Youngjae was holding my phone.”

“Did you tell him?”

“No, I said you probably sent the text to the wrong person.”

“Uh, cool.”

“Cool? They think you are dating someone they do not know about.”

“In my heart I am dating you. I only wait for you to confirm it.”

“You really are serious, huh?”

“Are you still thinking I am acting? Should I pick you up tomorrow to go on our first official date?”

“No matter how much I like the idea, I can’t. My father said that I will have to stay at home since I’ve been out the last two days.”

“Of course. What else. I guess I see you on Monday?”

“Yep. See you on Monday.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.” Y/N hangs up as she sinks into her chair with the phone on her chest. The redness and this weird feeling of joy and  melting  start to show on her face. Her heart is beating so fast that she almost gets scared by her mother who is walking into her room.

“I know I should not listen to your private conversation, but could it be? My little girl is becoming a woman?” Y/N couldn’t help it, the warm in her face bec o me s more and she knows, she is blushing even more now.

“No need to start the talk about the bees etc . It’s nothing like that at all .”

“No, don’t worry.  You probably researched it all by yourself…  May you want to tell me w ho it is? Do I know him ?”

“Who’s who?”

“The boy. You l oo ked like you were about to melt away and your face blushes so hard-” 

“Mom. It is not what you think. I tell you, it is not what you are thinking about!”

“Fine. What was the phone call about?” , her mother asks suspiciously.

“Jinyoung invited me to watch his upcoming play. He does not have the main role this time but Tae does. But I guess I won’t be allowed to go anyway.” She is so focused on not telling anything to her mother that she does not even notice her father is leaning against the doorframe.

“Cherié, may you can leave me alone with Y/N for a minute.” Her mother nods as she walks out of the room.  When she left the room, he sits down in front of her on her bed. “Are you that embarrassed to cancel on your friend?”

“I am more embarrassed to cancel his play. I will have to find an excuse again so it does not look like-” As she starts to talk, his eyes wonder to her stuffed animal she had received from her dad before he died. In his mind, to be finally accepted by her as the new father on her life, he might  will have to  change a  bit his way with her . 

“I let you watch him play.” , he interven es .

“Wait. You let me watch a drama play?”

“I can see on the school homepage  who is playing which role. I f your name shows up and when it does not, it should be  alright .”

“So, I am allowed to watch their  acting but I am just not allowed to do it?”

“Did you misunderstand me before? You can support your friends. Of course, I let you go. It won’t be longer than eight  right?”

“I don’t know.”

“Short version: you are allowed to watch but you will not take it as a class. Was that clear enough now?” In her mind she knew it, but she tries to keep acting as she didn’t to make him feel like he is more than strict enough. “Will it be this week?”

“Yeah. He just didn’t say which day…”

“Well, have fun whenever the play happens.”

“Thanks.” Her father nods as he  moves  his hands against each other . He gets up slowly, too slowly and he looks slightly hurt. “Is everything okay? It looks like I said something wrong.” The movements of his stop as he looks at her.

“ No, nothing that you did. I just wonder about something.  Am I doing such a horrible job as a dad?” The irritation is all over her face. “I mean, I don’t want to replace your dad. He is and always be your dad.” A tear falls off his face. “I just hope that one day, you will accept me as a father. Look, I don’t want to pressure you to call me dad. But I am always a he or a you to you.” Y/N wanted to speak but he interrupts her. “I am not done yet. Even  when  you don’t want to call me dad, you could at least call me by my first name. I will never have children on my own, because of biological reasons.  When my doctor broke this news to me, my world fell apart. But then me and your mother, we found each other. I am thankful that you did not try to break us apart. At least I have a daughter, who’s you. Maybe one day, you’ll see me as your dad. I don’t expect you to say anything now, so, I’ll just leave you alone for tonight.”, he says as he walks out. Before he closes the door, she jumps up.

“Wait a second.” Her father turns his body towards her once again. “I don’t know if it makes you happier, but when I talk about you with my friends, I call you father. Even if I don’t say it personal, I see you as  my father  number two. My dad is my dad and he will be number one forever  in my heart  but I just need more time to let another man become my new dad.” His eyes water  again as another tear escapes his eyes whilst a small smile appears on his face.

“I understand that  and I will respect that. It might sound silly to you at your age, but you have no idea how much it means to me. Thank you. ” , he says with a smile as he shuts the door. A deep sigh comes from her as she looks at the closed door. She wants to but somehow, she just cannot get herself to say it out loud.  _ Why is it so hard to say dad again? _


	9. Chapter 9

Y/N is more than happy to be in the cafeteria to have lunch with her friends after such fun weekend. A lot of things go through her head as she places the tray on the table. Today she goes for unhealthy, a pizza slice, chocolate cake and some French fries. The only thing missing would be juice. Instead of her beloved apple juice, she has picked water which she starts to regret by now. Even though not everyone from her friends are at the table yet, it is already lifting her mood up. She starts to eat her food as soon as she said hello. “This weekend was really a lot of fun. Don’t you think?”, she asks into the circle as she picks up her pizza slice to take a bite. 

“You mean your study Sunday?”, BamBam asks mockingly before he cannot hold is laugh back any longer. 

“Says someone who should learn how to use a book.”  

“What for do I need a book when I have my phone with me. Whenever I want to study, I can.”  

“Then you should start using it. Did you at least search up our project for science?”  

“I thought you did that already?”  

“Typical. So typical Bam! Can’t you just do it for once?”   

“Fine, I’ll look it up. Maybe I find something which is not to hard and not to easy. Don’t complain afterwards if I pick the wrong project.” A loud sound comes from Youngjae as he drops his fork onto his tray. “What was that for?” 

“Guys, pay attention to Jinyoung. I want to see if he will finally tell us who she is.”, Youngjae says as he sees Jinyoung coming to their table together with Jin and Namjoon. Whilst the other friends wait for what is coming up next, Youngjae is grinning already from cheek to cheek. “Look, an angel arrives at our table! Hello my dear angel, I hope you have a great day ahead of you. I hope you let me know if you need something.” The reaction that Youngjae wanted comes immediately as Jinyoung smiles drop. His smile is quickly replaced with an annoyed expression. “Angels are not made to look this annoyed at someone. Did you not sleep well?” 

“Why are you trying to mess with him, Youngjae?”, Jin asks. Youngjae only grins as he moves his eyebrows up and down as he signals to look at Jinyoung. 

“I am bot messing with him. Not at all. But he could tell us who she is. We waited long enough.”, Youngjae responds as he turns back to Jinyoung. The eyes of Jinyoung are fixated on Youngjae’s face as he pretends that he has no idea what Youngjae might be talking of.  

“I am your angel now?”, Jinyoung questions back as he tries to hide that he is on the edge already. “Two questions: how did I become your angel and how do I have to make it official that I quit being your angel?” 

“Idiot. Just tell us. Who is she?” This short but simple question got everyone’s attention. Jaebum’s eyes are immediately on Jungkook who is looking straight at Y/N. That she pretends like she is fine and that she does not listen makes it obvious that she wants to hide something. Sweat starts to build lightly on her forehead as she becomes more and more nervous. Jaebum watches the scene between both of them without saying anything as they sit too far apart. “Come on. Tell us!”  

“There is no she. So you can stop asking me.”  

“Lie to someone else but not to me. Are you already a couple? Is that why it is such a secret?”  

“Youngjae! Can we just eat in peace?”, Jinyoung yells as he loses his cool. Jungkook looks around at his friends, just to see that Jaebum is looking at him as he would wait for Jungkook to speak up. Jaebum takes out his phone and starts to type on his phone. It looks almost as he would send someone a text.“Stop bothering me. This is my last warning.”  

“Just tell me! Why are you making such a secret out of it? You texted Y/N. If I would have not seen the text myself, I would have not believed her.” Jinyoung can see in the corner of his eyes that he better should not bring her into the conversation as she looks stressed already. Whilst Jungkook starts to feel uncomfortable, his phone vibrates.  

 **Jaebum** : You know more than us. We speak after school alone. 

Jungkook looks at Jaebum who is turning his head back to him. That is when Jungkook nods as he puts his phone away. “Youngjae! Shut up!”, Yoongi says as he has enough. “Leave him alone. He won’t answer you, get that in your brain. Maybe we should direct your questions to the person who received the message.” With those words the attention goes to Y/N. She would rather just sink into the floor than to handle this situation here and now. 

“What are you looking at me for?”, Y/N asks. “I was not the one who sent it.” 

“Something tells me that you know something.”  

“I did not know until I received the message that he obviously likes someone. Who even cares? He can do whatever he wants, leave me alone with that.” 

“Do you smell that?”, Namjoon asks. “That is the smell of jealousy.” The laughter of the others are provocative to her. She takes a few more french fries before she looks at Namjoon again. 

“Wait a second. Are you trying to say that I am jealous?” Namjoon nods as he takes a bite from his lunch amused. “First of all, I just don’t care about that part of my friend’s life. Secondly, I forgot to ask you something Tae.” Tae looks at her like a deer in the headlights. His eyes are widely open as he places his fork on his plate. “I will watch your play. I mean yours and Jinyoung’s. I have just forgotten when it will be... Is it on Wednesday?”  

“You are coming to watch us play?” 

“Yeah, it would be great if you could tell me when, otherwise I might not appear to the play.”, she assures as she smiles at him.  

“They postponed it to this Thursday, an hour after school.”  

“Do I have to reserve a seat or do I have to be there early?”  

“You’re a joker. Be there half an hour before the play and it will be okay.”, Tae smiles. “Jinyoung, you did not forget about the practice tonight, right?” Jinyoung shakes his head as Jimin sighs loudly. 

“She is really good in changing topics, isn’t she?”, Jimin jokes as he raises his eyebrow a bit before everyone went silent.  

“You want to say something to me, Jimin?” 

“I have nothing to say. Do you?” 

“Bon Appetite my men. Let’s keep the talking down then.” 

“Just one more question.”, Yugyeom adds. 

“Of course. One more question must come from Yugyeom.”, she sighs. “What?” 

“Why are you still talking?” The sassiness in his words makes the other laugh even harder as she moves her lips to an okay before she turns back to her lunch.

* * *

When Y/N comes back to her room after having breakfast, she checks her phone for a message as it is the day of the play. To her surprise she received a text message three minutes ago from a friend.   

 **Jungkook:** Hey, come downstairs. I am waiting but not longer than five minutes. Then I will come upstairs and drag you down. 

The text makes her smile as she wonders if he seriously means it. She opens her window to look outside. Her eyes find him immediately, but he does not seem to see her. She takes her stuff that she needs for the day and walks downstairs. "Good morning, Jungkook. You can call yourself lucky that I get up so early. What are you doing at my house at this time? I had to check your message twice if you really meant that you would only wait five minutes." 

"Morning. Well, that was not my idea. Come on, we've got to go." He spoke in such a cold form that it almost sounded like a command. 

"Uhm, why are you commanding me? Wait, what did you do?” 

"I'm not commanding and to my defence, I did nothing. I cannot say anything about it because otherwise you would not come with me. You will understand when we are there.", Jungkook explains as he starts to walk. 

"Is it about lunch yesterday?”, she asks as she starts to follow him. 

"Well, yeah. That too."  

“You will have to keep it a secret just a little longer. I already figured out how I feel about him.” 

“You did? Did you tell him?” 

“No.” 

“It would be so much easier if you would just tell him.”, he complains. “Do you have any idea what you do to me as I am the only one who knows? Did you even inform Jinyoung that I know?” 

“I did not do that either...” 

“Huh. I never thought that you are such a coward.” 

“I am not a coward.” 

“We’ll see.” The rest of the walk is in silence as Jungkook walks with her into the park. It does not take long before she sees Jaebum and Jinyoung standing there. Just a few steps from where he confessed. 

"Jungkook. What is going on?", Y/N questions quietly as she pulls on his jacket but Jungkook does not react. As she would have no other change, she walks closer to them. 

"Good morning Y/N.", Jaebum says as he waits for Jinyoung to greet her too who is standing next to him. Jinyoung greets her, but he stuttered a little in confusion. "I guess you know why we picked you two you up before the school starts?" 

"Can you finally speak up? I already told you, I don't know.", Jinyoung says annoyed. 

"Fine. Why do I have to press it out of Jungkook when you could have told me the whole time that you have a crush on her?" 

"Jungkook? How did you know?", Jinyoung asks as his eyes move between him and her. 

"I overheard you at the park. I asked Y/N what it was all about in the library when you were looking for your book." Jaebum hits Jungkook’s chest before he scratches his forehead. 

"Does it matter? Jinyoung, I thought we are very close friends! Why did you not tell me?" 

"I did not know how. She does not even know how she feels about me..." Jaebum eyes look surprised at her almost as he would challenge her to speak up. 

"You don't know? You like him as a friend or do you like him more than that?" Y/N’s mind starts to race as her heart starts to beat in a fast pace. 

“I... I mean I …" 

“Your what?” 

"I like him more than a friend.", she confesses in an almost not hearable voice whilst she looks to the ground. The joy on Jinyoung's face grows immediately as Y/N smiles up at him. If his heart could, it would jump out of his chest by now. If he could, he would hand it to her. 

"Good, was it that hard? Next question. When do you plan to inform the others?" 

"Please, keep it for yourself.", Y/N begs. “Just for now.” 

"Y/N. My dear Y/N. Maybe Jungkook does shut up, but I don't. We never have secrets from each other and here we are now. We will not start having secrets from each other." 

"Please. Just this time!” 

"Absolutely no! You both will tell them." 

"No, not yet. That is way too early to inform them.” 

"Jinyoung, talk some sense into your girl." 

"Uh, now she is my girl? Wow, just put it on me when you can’t get through to her. She is not ready to say it out loud. She never had a boyfriend before, understand her. Try it at least. Can't you understand that it makes her nervous?" 

"Either you tell the others until Monday or I will.", Jaebum says as he walks off with Jungkook. Jinyoung and Y/N exchange some eye contacts without even noticing how far the others have gone already. "Don't you go to school today too? Come on, we'll be late if you keep standing there.”, he screams. When he looks at Jungkook, he can see that he is relieved. “You could have just told me earlier on… I swear if they keep on dreaming away by just looking at each other like that, I will need medicine to keep my food down at lunch.”

* * *

“Ah, there you all are.”, Y/N comments when she sees her friends are walking towards her. At that point she waited already for at least fifteen minutes in the theatre of their school for her friends to arrive. “I thought I will have to watch their play on my own.” 

“We said we will wait outside and go in together, did you forget?”, Mark asks.  

“Oh, that counted for me too? Sorry, you said ‘guys’. I thought as a girl I do not count.” Jaebum and Jungkook immediately push the others to the side to sit next to her. “What are you two clowns doing?”  

“We sit next to our former drama queen.", Jaebum answers. "Problem?" 

“No.”, he said as he looks at the others to see if they saw what he just saw. When the play starts to begin, that is when she noticed that Jaebum and Jungkook do keep her in sight of their eyes but they say nothing else to her. As the curtain opens and the costumes are shown, that is when someone from her friends make a mean joke about it. She turns immediately to see who it was but all of their faces look towards the stage with a serious expression. When she hears no other laughter, she turns back around to watch the show.

* * *

Barely through the half show and a dozen of questions later, Jaebum wonders about the upcoming scene. Sometimes it was him who asked her a question, sometimes it was Jungkook. Jaebum tilts his head as his finger slides over his lips. “Don’t dare to ask me another question, Jaebum!”, she whispers. 

"I only want to know if that is the part in which he has to kill himself because he cannot be with her?" Y/N rolls her eyes at his question. 

"Shh. Watch. You will see what will happen next if you’d talk less." 

 _"The things you said to me? Don’t they mean a thing?”_ , Jinyoung’s act is on point as he has the attention of the audience. _“But you cannot leave me. I have nothing if I don't have you Y/N."_ That is the moment in which Y/N swallows hard as she leans forward in disbelief. 

“Did he just say Y/N? I thought the roles character name is not yours..?”, Jungkook asks whilst Y/N asks herself if she has just heard correctly. Her mind does not process what he just asked. It goes into her ear and out by the other one without thinking about what he might have said. Did he just say her name instead of the character’s name, she wonders. The curtains close and that is the moment when her friends start to look at her. No one knows what to say as they can see the panic on her face. Y/N grabs her chair so hard that it feels as she would get a cramp soon as she tries to figure out what to do next. She asks herself if the others might have heard it, maybe they have only misheard it too. Jungkook’s eyes are clued on Jaebum as Jaebum leans closer to Y/N. 

"Is this how you planned it? I did not mean that he has to do it in front of the school, you know.", Jaebum asks carefully. “Oh no. You don’t look like it was planned…” 

"That is absolutely not how I wanted it to go.", Y/N stutters as she turns to him. The hand that is placed on her shoulder makes her want to turn around to see who wants something from her. To her surprise, a smiling Jin is right in her face. 

"Good job, Y/N. You’re not a part of this drama but still you will get some funny credit for it." Y/N's eyes go to the others who look like they have seen a ghost. “I hope you guys explain it to us?” Y/N nods as she turns to the front as she throws her weight against the back of the chair. 

“I hope it is not getting worse.”, she whispers. Jungkook starts to laugh as he looks at her. 

“Wait for tomorrow when everybody knows about it.” 

“Please, just kill me now.” 

“Having a death wish already? That will be a fun day tomorrow. Don’t we have the drama teacher in our first class?” She shuts her eyes and slaps herself at her forehead. “Harder. I think it’s supposed to hurt more. Just like that.”, he says as he flicks his finger against her forehead. “You’re welcome.” The pain on her head starts to grow, therefore she leans more forward to hold a hand in front of it. “Well, do you still want to die?” Slowly she moves her head towards him with an angry, painful look on her face. “Got it.”

* * *

After the play, all of her friends including her walk silently to their favourite restaurant, Plate’s. No one seems to know what to say and nor what to do to ease up the mood. When everyone had ordered, Tae sits staring at Jinyoung for a minute before he leans forward. "I cannot believe it. I get a main role and you steal the attention from me!", Tae complains to Jinyoung. “Why did you do that?” 

"I did not plan to say her name out loud! It just kind of happened. I was just so nervous and then… Well, I have no explanation either…” As the waitress brings the drinks, Tae swallows as he starts to shake his head again. He waits for her to leave before he would continue. 

"How can that just happen, huh? A car accident might happen, but saying the wrong name? Just once, only once you could have kept the spotlight on me. But no, the whole audience started to look for Y/N because you needed to say hers instead of the right name. I am so mad at you! By the way, why was I not informed about your little dating thingy?" 

"No one was.", Jinyoung says as Y/N plays with her milkshake. “She needed to figure out how she truly feels about me and I did not want to pressure her with it.” 

"Well, now everyone knows. The rest of the school will know it by tomorrow. Good job.", Jackson jokes. "Why did you not inform us? Maybe we could have helped you two. " 

"For the last time, I only had confessed to her a few days ago. As you all know, she never dated at all. Should I have pressured her by telling you? Especially Jackson. You would have acted the worst out of them all.” He leans his head on his palm as he looks towards the others. “Now I even did it in front of the school again." Jackson puts his drink down when he cannot get one question out of his head. 

"Wait, that means you did not go on a date yet right?", Jackson asks as he looks between both of them. 

"What are you thinking of now? Don’t plan our life, please stay out of it.”, Jinyoung begs as he can barely lift his head of embarrassment. 

"Well, I plan to have a party. That could be your first date." 

“Me and party? Jackson, I will not go to a party!”, Y/N explains. 

“You won’t?”, Jaebum intervenes. “You are living with me during next week. Your parents don’t need to figure that out.” 

“You must be dreaming! Why should I live with you?“ 

“Did your parents not talk to you yet? Next week during our holidays, you stay at my place.” 

“Your joking! I know nothing about it! I don’t believe a single word which leaves your lips.” 

“Believe it or not. On Friday evening, your parents will bring you over with your suitcase. You will stay in our guest room and on the night of the party, we could go there together. We will have to go home together afterwards, but I think you know why.” Y/N still looks as she does not believe him whilst Jinyoung looks jealous at Jaebum. 

“Why would they ask your mother? I could stay alone at home.” 

“Aww. Maybe because you could bring a boy over?”,  Jimin jokes. “That means you will come to our party.” 

“I don’t even have party clothes. I won’t go.” 

“No one of us wears ‘party clothes’. A shirt, a pair of jeans and you are good to go.” Jinyoung smiles at Y/N to check if she’s okay with their plan. She only nods as she takes another sip from her milkshake. “That will be fun!”, Jimin adds. As her friends smile and converse with each other, she only shakes her head as she wonders how true Jaebum’s words must be. 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I sincerely apologize of keeping you waiting. I am about to move into my first apartment and therefore I have to do a lot of furniture shopping - it is not so easy to pick the right ones (I did not think it would take that much time effort).
> 
> I hope I can update more frequently afterwards. (￢_￢;)

“Somebody home?”, Y/N asks as she looks for her parents.  Out of breath and in a bad mood, she throws her backpack to the ground. 

“Living room.”, her father answers. The closer she walks towards them the more she wonders if Jaebum  had  lied to her. “Are you okay? Maybe you should eat something before you want to tell us why you look so upset.”

“Is it true that you two are going on vacation and I will have to stay at a friend’s house?” Her parents look at each other for a few seconds confused. She definitely  asked  them out of the blue. Her mother’s face expression shows that she seems to be sorry, but it takes another few seconds before her mother even says anything.

“Honey, I thought you talked about it with her on the weekend...”, her mother says quietly  as she looks at  her father. As he shakes his head a s sigh leaves her lips as she looks to the ground for a second. “I am sorry, sweetheart.”, she apologizes as she turns back to her daughter. “There must have been a miscommunication.”

“No one said anything to me until I heard it from Jaebum! Do you have any ideas how that makes me feel? I seriously thought he was joking with me! I am the only one who knew nothing.”

“Sweetheart, I talked with his aunt about our plans and she suggested to ask her sister. She called her right away and she said that  it  is okay for her if Jaebum is okay with it. You will stay in their guest room, so don’t worry.”

“Of course. Why do you have to discuss our life all the time with his aunt?”

“Y/N, believe it or not. I am not only a mother. I am a person too !  Are we not allowed to go on vacation just because we are parents?”

“You are unbelievable! For how long did  you plan to go on vacation ?”

“Maybe three weeks. But we did not know until last week if we should cancel or if we should ask one of your friend’s parent s . We knew that you would not want to come with us since it also includes your father’s business.”

“I cannot believe it.”, Y/N says whilst she is shaking her head before she heads into the kitchen. As soon as she sees the dinner on the kitchen counter, she takes a plate and fills it up with the food her mother had cooked. Y/N places the plate in the microwave and turns the switch to two minutes. The eyes of her mother follow her as she takes the food out of the microwave and as she takes a seat at the dinner table. Her fork moves quickly from the plate to her mouth repeatedly. After watching her daughter for a few seconds, she sits down next to her. “This food tastes really good. I am still mad though!”

“Maybe I should have asked your father, if he talked with you about it. I just expected that he did either before or after he became emotional about what he told you about.” Her daughter is obviously more focused on the food in front of her as on the words her mother says. Y/N’s hand keeps on moving as she would have not eaten within days. “Slow down or it will get stuck in your throat.” Y/N usually eats only like this when she is mad and hungry at the same time. In those moments she stuffs food quickly into her instead of yelling out her anger. “Are you not alright with it?”

“I would have preferred to stay home alone or to stay with another friend. Then I could come here whenever I need something since he lives closer to our home. Besides, why am I not allowed to stay at home alone? I have proven so many times that I am more mature than other kids my age.”

“I know you are old enough, but... Your father is afraid . What if someone is breaking in and you are on your own? You would not know how  to defend yourself.”

“Which could also happen when I leave alone when I am thirty something old.”, she says as she rolls her eyes. Her mother sighs before she looks at her daughter p itiful . “It’s not that I would not look forward to it, I just wished I knew it before a friend breaks this news to me.” Y/N’s mother takes the plate from her when she finished her meal and puts it into the dishwasher. “Maybe I wanted another portion?”

“Then you would not be able to eat the Tiramisu which is waiting for you in the fridge … ”, she says as she opens the fridge to take the  dessert out. Her mother takes  the dessert and shows her how good it looks like. “Still some place left in your tummy?”

“For dessert? Always.” The Tiramisu is placed in front of her on the table. It looks so damn good that it waters her mouth just by the thought of how good it  would taste.

“I know it does not make you forgive us right away-” The words get interrupted as Y/N looks up.

“ You are right. Maybe tomorrow.” Another spoon with Tiramisu ends up in her mouth. “This is really good . Damn good .”, Y/N comments with a full mouth of Tiramisu. The grin on her  mother’s face grows as she watches her eat it all up. The laugh makes Y/N look up as she swallows the  last spoon of  Tiramisu down in one go. “Let me guess. The Tiramisu I have just eaten is from Jaebum’s aunt?” , Y/N asks as she leans back. Her stomach feels so full that she wonders if she has eaten more than she  realized .

“Yep.”, her mother laughs as she watches her daughter placing down the spoon. “Bought us all a portion when I walked past her shop.” Y/N places her palm on the table to push herself up from the chair.

“I’ll take a shower and go  straight  to bed . I feel exhausted .”

“What about homework?”

“I’ll get up extra early for it.”, she assures as she leaves the room. As she goes to her room, she picks up her backpack which still lies  near her shoes untouched. Once in her room she checks her phone. No message, no missed phone call.  With a huge sigh she lies down on her bed whilst she thinks what she would even pack to wear as long as she is at Jaebum’s place. Still angry that they will not let her stay alone in the apartment, she  gets up and  starts  to pack a few  necessary  things .

* * *

The school on Friday was over quickly, almost too quickly. That her parents did not say anything to her until she brought it up herself is still boiling inside of her which is very clear to read from her face. Y/N’s friends only talked about the upcoming party and about the upcoming week. As the school will be closed for a week, her friends already made some plans. That no friend is out of town over the next week, makes her happy as it would mean that there will always be someone around to hang out with. The more they talked about the party, the more she started to daydream in boredom. Apparently, she missed the moment when her friend turned to her directly. “Y/N? Hey! We are talking with you!”, J imin  says annoyed as he waves his hand in front of her face as he leans down to her a little. “Are you still there? Hello?”

“Uh huh, yeah.”, she looks up into his eyes as she wonders which part she must have overheard. She hits the hand in front of her face  away  lightly.

“How can you do so good in school but not listen to your friends whilst they are talking to you? You are such a riddle.”, he comments as he stands up straight again. Namjoon clears his throat as he steps closer to her.

“We just asked you, if you want to come to the party or not. Do you?”, Namjoon asks so slowly that it sounds like he is pretending to talk as slow as a sloth climbs. She starts to tug on her sleeves again as she looks at her friends. “I don’t want to pressure you, but you still did not answer...”

“I kind of want to but I have never been to  a party before. Do I have to bring something?”

“Jackson does not expect us to bring something. Just bring yourself and it will be fine.”

“I told you, we will go there together.”, Jaebum assures. “I will not leave the party without you and you won’t leave without me .”

“Wait, does that mean I have a bodyguard on the party?”

“Isn’t it enough that your boyfriend will be with you at the party?” Y/N’s face starts to red up. Hearing ‘your boyfriend’ being directed at her still feels weird but the good kind of weird. No matter how weird it feels to her, she cannot hide the smile which starts to grow on her face.

“So? Can a girl who’s in a relationship not have a bodyguard?”

“What I am saying is, Jinyoung will watch over you probably all night especially when he had his few drinks.”

“With drinks you mean alcohol?”, she asks. The laughter of the others become so loud that she wonders if she said something funny by accident or if they just try to mess with her. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh my gosh. You are!”, BamBam explains. “Did you never drink alcohol before?” When she turns her head towards BamBam, she sees Jinyoung, Tae, Mark and Youngjae walking towards them.

“No , but we should not be drinking-”

“Guys! Did you hear that? Our  innocent friend will finally have her first alcoholic drink . I cannot wait to find out what kind of drunk you are.” Jungkook and Yugyeom look at each other as they try to bite back their laughs as Jin hits the back of BamBam’s head.

“You ‘97 boys are the worst! Do you have to  be this rude to a girl? By the way, I hope you don’t go overboard again.”, Jin complains.

“The last time, I had a bit too much. That  might be true.  Okay,  I will not deny that it happened.”

“What about the time before that ? The last party was nothing comparing to the one I am talking about.”

“There was no time before that.” Whilst BamBam answers, Jin crosses his arms in front of his chest as he would wait for him to confess. Jin lowers his head as his eyes stay clued on BamBam’s face. Mark joins Jin with his body movements whilst the others wait for what might come next.

“Boys, am I the only one who remembers him standing on the table dancing and screaming out he is a kin g? What was his name again... Oh yeah, King Double B.” The embarrassment on  BamBam’s face shows that he knows about which party  Jin is talking about. The video of him made its round through the school. Some posted mean comments and some just saw it as a funny video. However, it never crossed  BamBam’s mind that he would become known in the school as the party boy who cannot get enough of.

“Okay, I guess I know... That time... I mean that one drink was...” As BamBam realizes, that no matter what he would say, it would not be helpful enough. “Who cares right? We all had fun.” Everyone nods whilst Jungkook sends the video to Y/N. She immediately opens the video and watches it on mute. “What’s so funny? Let’s see how fast you will get drunk, Ms. I don’t drink.”, BamBam says as he watches her looking at her phone. She saves the video quickly and closes the messenger app.

“Funny is what you have done. Slut drops? Twerking? What in the hell is alcohol doing to you Mr. Double B.” , Y/N says as she bites her lips to not let a laugh escape her lips.

“Who send her the video? Better tell me before I find out.” Youngjae  laughed a little too hard which brought the attention to him. “You did it!”, BamBam blames as he points at Youngjae. “Got ya!”

“It was not me. You got the wrong one here.”, Youngjae says as defense. “But I could imagine who would love to share the video.” BamBam looks at everyone who is standing there with them as his eyes land on Mark.

“Don’t you even dare to accuse me of doing that! You should know me better by now.”

“True...”  BamBam waits a few more seconds but no one is confessing to have sent her the video. “Show me your phone.”, he says as he takes the phone from her. “Since when do you have a new passcode?”

“What do you mean with new?” BamBam tries to put some numbers into her phone but he fails. “Did you know my old passcode?”

“Maybe. But only to send me the  notes that you had on your phone.”

“What the heck is wrong with you?”

“Too much is wrong with him. Simply too much.”, Jinyoung says as he shakes his head.

“I will go home with you. I’ll help you with the suitcases.”,  Jaebum offers as she takes her phone back. She checks the time on the phone whilst she notices that BamBam is still waiting for her to unlock her phone.

“Damn. We have to hurry otherwise they might leave without me having my suitcases.” , she lies loudly.  Jaebum nods as both take off to pick up the suitcases. As Jinyoung starts to walk behind both of them,  Jaebum holds his hand up to stop Jinyoung from following. Jinyoung stops as  Jaebum’s hand is on his chest. Surprised he looks at him. 

“Where do you think you are going?”

“I am  coming with you .”

“No, no. You stay here and take the bus.”

“You know that she is my girlfriend and not yours?”

“That is why I am going and that is also the reason why you stay here.”

“What did you just try to say?”

“This look on your face. Yep, that one you are having when you  only  look pass her and not even direct at her. If they see it, they will know. Especially when you would look at her like you do lately, let me tell you, they will know.”

“I am an actor. I can hide it w ell  if I want to.”

“Okay. Try it then.” Jinyoung takes a deep breath and starts to act.  He changes his face expression but for Jaebum it was not good enough.  “Nope. Did not work. I see you at the party!”, Jaebum says as he turns over to take her by the wrist to keep on walking but her body does not move.

“Wait. Am I not even allowed to kiss my girl goodbye?”

“No. I don’t want to see that.”

“Can’t you just look away?”

“Then I would hear it and that is even worse. Let’s go!”, Jaebum says as he drags her along. As she keeps walking ahead, she blows him a kiss and waves him goodbye. “You two are just, argh.”

“If you would have a girlfriend it would be different for you too.” , she comments.

“Says who?”

“I do. We  also  could go on double dates  if you had one  and whoever she is, could make you see the world even brighter as it already is.” Jaebum shakes his head as he keeps walking.

“You are watching for sure to many tv shows. ”

“I actually do not watch this kind of stuff.”

“Uh huh. That is why you say those kind of things… ”

“Hey, I read a lot!”

“So do  dozen s of other people but none of them are saying any of those dreamer stuff.”

“Don’t say you don’t believe in love.”

“Listen, I am happy for both of you. But what if this thing you are having is not there anymore? What happens between us all…?”

“I know it messes up a lot of things if that should happen.. . I think Jinyoung and I are mature enough to not let it ruin our friendship with you guys.”

“Why does it sound like as you two are our parents who will get a divorce? ”

“Does it?”, she questions as she starts to smile as her eyes look into the distance.

“Don’t tell me I gave you some ideas!”

“Ideas for what?”, she asks as she stops walking. Jaebum moves his hand to show her to keep walking. “What kind of idea? Answer me.” Jaebum sighs deeply .

“Nothing, okay? I meant nothing. I thought you wanted to get your suitcases?”

“I just said that to not tell BamBam who sent me the video.”

“It was definitely a brat. Who else would do  it ? ” 

“Ha, yeah.  Yeah , he can be one.”, she smiles as she starts to walk.

“You seriously not going to tell me?”

“I would have, if you would have asked for the name. ”

“Okay, what’s the brat’s name?”

“Too late.”

“Huh ?”

“You had  the chance as I stood there. But let me tell you one thing, he will tell you anything anyway.”

“Jungkook?”,  Jaebum laughs as he looks down. “You know  BamBam will make him  drink until he throws up as a  punishment , right?”

“Jungkook can say no.”

“No one told you?  BamBam waits until someone is a little  to o drunk and then he stars to play any kind of game which no one heard before. Funny trick, he never loses any of the games.”

“He will trick him into drinking?”

“He will try it on you for sure.”

“But he can’t.”

“Huh?”

“I have my bodyguard and my boyfriend at the party which means at least one of you will watch over me?”

“I am there to party too.  That what you just said is his job. My job is only to bring you to the party and back.”

“Whatever you want to think…” Jaebum shakes his head and stays quiet until they reach the  front door of her home. When Y/N unlocks the door, she sees a note on the counter. 

_Hello Y/N!_ _We drove a bit earlier than planned_ _because of the traffic. Please behave and be as good as you always are._ _I asked his mother to give us a call if there is an emergency. Take care!_ _Miss you already. Mom_

“Great.”, she says out loud as she drops her bag to the ground. Jaebum looks a bit confused as he wonders what she means. “I’m going to get my stuff. Feel at home.”

“I thought you will only get your suitcases?”

“Yeah, I did not pick everything  out yet and if you do not want to tell Jinyoung what I wear underneath, you better stay here.”

“Why did you have to say that? Could you not just say that I should stay out of your room? ”

“ Well, maybe you would have walked in when I-”

“Don’t you dare to continue! ” Y/N starts to laugh as she leaves him alone in the living room.  After almost an hour, she comes into the kitchen to find him sitting on the kitchen counter with a bag of chips in his hand. 

“Are you that hungry?”, she wonders  when she sees empty snack packages and an empty orange juice bottle. “You could have said something, you know? Maybe I would have found something in the fridge. ”

“ I could, but I did not want  walk in on you packing... Nothing I would have not seen before anyway... ” ,  Jaebum says. Y/N smirks as  Jaebum drifts off with his mind.

“Did you just say you saw me-”

“No. Oh god, no! Never. I swear! If I’d ever I-”

“It’s fine. I was just joking.”, she assures.  “ Uhm,  Jaebum .  When  was the last time that you had a girlfriend ?” He looks at her like a cat which saw the thunder.

“I thought you don’t care about your friends love life?” , he stutters.

“Maybe I am curious.”, she answers as she takes a chip from the bag in his hand. “Your mother must be waiting for us, we should hurry.” She tries to change the topic as she sees that he does not want to talk about it.

“She called already. When I told her that you still need to pack, she understood that we won’t be at  our  house in ten minutes.”

“Uh, good.”

“You will meet her tomorrow, probably. She is about to go to work soon.”

“As long as she is alright with us staying alone at your place.”

“ Yeah, yeah...  Why do you care so much about me having a girlfriend though ?” Y/N clears her throat as she takes one breath. Her eyes move from the ground to him.

“I was a  little selfish, sorry. It’s just, I always hang out with you guys and I really would like to talk some girl stuff with someone and I thought if you had a girlfriend, I would have a female friend... I am sorry.”

“That is the reason why? Listen, I might not like to see you do your thing in front of me but if you want to talk about whatever is on your heart, you can talk with us. Believe me, clothes? Talk with  BamBam or Tae. Music? Multiple choices. Dance? Do I have to name them?”

“What about if I need advice regarding dating?”, she mumbles as she looks to the ground. “Who could I even talk to about that?”

“Hello? We are boys. Do you really think a female friend can tell you why a guy behaves the way he does? If you need to know anything about dating a boy, you have thirteen possibilities plus me .” Y/N nods as she understands. “Just do not tell us too many information about whatever goes on  beyond  kissing. I do not need nightmares.”

“What do you think we are doing?”

“You don’t want to know what we spoke about.”

“What? I think I need some kind of information about your conversations...”

“ Jinyoung was no part of it, if you wonder. But a sk Jungkook or wait until  Youngjae is drunk enough.”

“His an honest drunk?”

“Yeah. Need to know the truth about something which involves Youngjae, make him drunk.”

“What kind of drunk are you?”

“A serious drunk.”

“That exists?”

“Yeah. You better watch out that your boyfriend does not get too much to drink though .”

“Why? Does he behave like  BamBam in the video?”  Jaebum shakes his head as he throws away the empty orange juice bottle.

“No, he becomes very flirtatious and touchy.”

“Jinyoung? No way.”

“You will see. Let’s go, I guess you have more than one suitcase.” Y/N laughs loudly as  Jaebum finishes his sentence.

“You are right. I have three.” Jaebum tilts his head a little.

“You are only staying for a week!” , he notes as he starts to move his hands as he talks.

“Yeah, I need some stuff. Somewhere I needed to fit my computer into as well as my headphones and I also needed my  makeup and styling products-”

“Got it. ”, he intervenes. “ If I ever ask that question again, just stop me.”

* * *

“Your home is looks very nice!”, Y/N says as she looks around. It looks like the furniture were picked by a woman for sure. It is kind of modern but it still has a touch of landscape to it.

“Thanks.”,  Jaebum answers with a smile as he brings the suitcase to their guest room. “So, that would be your room.” He stops in front of the open door.

“A reason you don’t walk in?”

“No, let’s just leave the suitcases here for now.” He walks to towards the other rooms to show where which room is. “And that one would be mine. It’s not like you are unwelcomed in there but just don’t rip the door open and say ‘Here I am’.”

“Why should I do it?”

“Well, so far you don’t behave like the other ‘97 brats. I hope it stays that way.”

“Wait, who did that before?”

“Yugyeom. I wanted to kill him that night.”

“Everyone else slept at each other houses?”

“Yeah. After parties... After fights or just because they felt like it.” Y/N nods as she notices that this room does not look like a typical athlete room. It’s a simple room with barely posters on the wall. Some books are lying on his desk.

“I expected to see a dirty boy room, but it so does not look like that...”

“As much as I appreciate your honesty, sometimes you could keep it to yourself. But you are right, my mother made me clean up my room.  Uh, n ow I remember what I wanted to give you.” Her eyes follow him to his desk from where he picks a book up. “That is one of the books Jinyoung gave me when I asked him for a recommendation for school when I had to write an essay . He meant that this is an easy book to write about. But maybe you want to read into  a book which  your boyfriend likes.”

“How thoughtful. Thanks.”

“I am so hungry. Aren’t you?” , he asks as they walk to the kitchen.  Jaebum takes two water bottles and puts them on the kitchen counter as he turns to the fridge.

“You have just eaten snacks at my place! You are hungry already again?”, she questions  as he looks through the fridge.

“No, still. I am still hungry.”  Jaebum’s phone starts to ring as Y/N takes a water  bottle  to drink a sip. “We were just about to. Why?” Jaebum takes the open water bottle from her to drink a sip as well. She laughs about it before she places the bottle on the kitchen counter next to him whilst he repeats saying yes on the phone. “Y/N, do you want to meet up with  Hoseok and  Yugyeom before we head to the party?”

“Then I need to get ready now!”

“Well, maybe it’s better to bring  the food to my place. She wants to get ready first.”  Jaebum starts to laugh loudly as he touches his stomach. “Yeah, right. See you then.”

“May you want to tell me why you are laughing so hard?”

“ Hoseok asked if you said that it will only take ten minutes, if  so, they will bring the food in an hour.”

“That is not funny at all.  Girls  just need longer and I never had to style up for a party...”

“Ugh. This is why I am happy to be a single child. Jeans and a t-shirt that is all you need.”

“But what if he expects his girlfriend to look totally amazing?”

“We are talking about Jinyoung! If I would not know better, I would say he liked you since you came to our school. Why would he now start to care what you are wearing, huh? If he says something bad, your bodyguard is here.” Y/N laughs as she sighs.

“I hope that was meant honestly.”

“Do you want me to lie to you?”

“No! Fine. I will start to get ready. Do you need something from the bathroom before I take a shower if that is  okay? ”

“No, go ahead. I wait for the boys. I hope they hurry up...” Y/N nods as she walks back to her suitcases. Quickly she takes everything she needs from the smaller suitcase and brings it into the bathroom. After showering she looks through the tutorials she has saved on her phone for hair and makeup. 

“Why are they so complicated?”, she asks herself as she plugs the hair straightener in. Another deep sigh leaves her lips as she starts the makeup tutorial . She turns on the tutorial to continue step by step. “Covering up my whole face? Do I have such a bad skin?”, she wonders as she checks her skin in the mirror. “Wait, what kind of product is that? Wait a minute , a sponge? I don’t have that kind of stuff! I cannot go shopping now...” She wants to scream her  frustration  out but she does not want to make  Jaebum think that a crazy person is staying over at his house. “Okay, let’s play this video forward so that we only do the eyes.” She watches the tutorial twice before she attempts to do it. “No! No! It does not look like in this tutorial! I look like a monster. A real ugly one!”, she yells at herself as she takes the makeup remover. She removes the makeup she had on already and thinks about what  Jaebum told her. “Maybe he is right. He knows me as a not typical girly girl. Mascara and a little make for my eye brows must be enough. It must be enough.” She applies the makeup quickly as she is used to wear this look daily. Sometimes, when she had enough of straight hair, she uses he straightener to make some curls.  Y/N takes the straightener and starts to curl her hair a little.  She never walked around the boys with that kind of hairstyle. When she thought that she was ready, she walked into the living room, but there is nobody in sight. The smell of pizza hits her like a thunder as she thinks if  Jaebum is in  the kitchen . She wants to  greet  to  Hoseok and  Yugyeom but  Hoseok is faster.

“It must be enough.”, he says quietly as he starts to laugh as the others look at each with their best to not laugh. “Don’t look at me like that Y/N. I could not overhear you when I walked back from the toilet. You look good by the way.”

“I actually wanted to say hello but I guess I will start with something else. Jaebum, do you have a plate for me?”

“Only if you will not kill somebody with it.”,  Jaebum says as he places a plate on the empty seat next to Yugyeom.

“Well, if you don’t want any murder to happen, keep the knives on your side of the table.”  Hoseok immediately takes the knives and puts them into the sink.

“Sit down! Let’s eat together before we walk over to Jackson’s house.”, Hoseok suggests.

“Do I get two extra securities to get there safely?”

“Shut it and eat if you cannot even say thank you to us for bringing you food.”,  Yugyeom says slightly  aggressive .

“Sorry. I would have said thank you before I would have taken my first piece. Something seems off with  you... ”

“Nothing. Not important at all.”

“You sure about it? You look more like you would go to the funeral as to a party.”

“You want to know? Fine, there was this girl I went out a few times. Turns out she only used me to make her  ex- boyfriend jealous. Are you happy now?”

“Oh. I did not even know that you went on dates with someone. Was it someone I have sport with? I could throw a basketball into her face to make her nose bleed. Accidentally of course...” The boys look at her stunned as she finishes her sentence. “What? Would not be the first time.”

“Why are you so angry? He should be this angry.” , Hoseok asks.

“My friend is sad and that makes me mad.  Yugyeomie is such a cutie pie. I mean most of the time and he is a great dancer, what else could a girl ask for?”

“You have not forgotten that you are dating Jinyoung?”

“Oh, come on. Shut up! I don’t want to see any of my friends like that. Would be the same if it would be you or you.”, she explains as she points at  Hoseok and Jaebum.

“Good to know. Thanks.”,  Yugyeom says with a pressured smile on his face. 

“I can still throw a drink at her and pretend that she offended me. If that is what you prefer.”

“I hope Jackson did not invite her  ex- boyfriend. I mean her ‘again’ boyfriend. ”

“Well, is he a football player? I guess he will be invited then if we all were not informed...” ,  Hoseok asks.

“I heard a team mate speaking about getting back with his ex. He spoke something about jealousy...”,  Jaebum tells. “If he is the guy you talked about, then he will come with her.”

“I don’t even want to go anymore. Y/N, do you mind and study with me instead?” ,  Yugyeom asks with a depressed face.

“I finally got ready... I mean, I was at least busy for twenty minutes to get ready. Now I should stay? I don’t want to be selfish but it’s my first party with Jinyoung.”

“Forget it. I’ll go home when you guys go to the party. By the way, much longer than just twenty minutes.”

“Twenty minutes, thirty minutes. What’s the difference? Look, you won’t skip this party! You want to study? Fine, you will study the drinks with me!”

“What  did  you  just suggest ?”

“I have never been drunk before and you drank obviously before. Which means we could make some drinking games together and realize what gets me drunk  quickly. That means we will study what I should never drink again, deal?”

“You take this honor from BamBam? That sounds like fun.”

“Not for Bam.”,  Hoseok adds. “Whatever let’s finish this and then we should get going before  Yugyeom changes his mind again.”


	11. Chapter 11

As soon as they arrive at the party, they look for their friends. Y/N follows  Jaebum almost blindly as there are too many people to even watch her own steps. It feels so crowded to her that it almost feels as she is suffocating.  The eyes of her wander from the left to the right and back as she follows him.  Hoseok walks beside  Jaebum whilst  Yugyeom is walking next to her. A sudden move next to her is getting her attention.  “There is my girl, hey!”, Jinyoung says as he pulls her to side. He says nothing else he only stares at her with a smile on his face.  Yugyeom touches  Hoseok’s shoulder to make him stop from walking, to show him to where Y/N is walking to. When  Hoseok turns to him, he sees why  Yugyeom had touched his shoulder. “You look absolutely gorgeous.”, he says  over his shoulder  as he takes her a few steps further away from the others.

“I barely did anything.” Jinyoung stops to walk as he sees a spot which is not to crowded to be alone with her.

“Really? ” Slowly he places his palms on her cheeks whilst he pets her face with his thumb. “ According to  Hoseok you needed almost an hour.” Her eyes move to look for  Hoseok who is still standing next to  Jaebum and  Yugyeom . Once she makes eye contact with him, she narrows her eyes at him but he only moves his shoulder up as he whispers a ‘sorry’.  She hopes that he says ‘sorry’ because of his big mouth and not about something else that he had said which she is unaware of.  “Anyway, I am glad you are finally here!” The closer Jinyoung came to her face the more she notices a smell of alcohol.

“Did you drink already? Could you not wait for me? ”

“Just one shot. Well, not exactly one. I drank one with Namjoon and one with Jackson before but I tried not to! They pulled me in somehow...”

“Ugh, they are evil.”, she jokes as she hits his chest playfully. “ Anybody else here already?” Before Jinyoung is even able to answer her question, she sees Jackson and Namjoon walking towards her. Jinyoung removes his hands from her cheeks and takes her hand in his.

“She truly came! Namjoon! JB made her come!”, Jackson screams as soon as he discovers Y/N. “Yeah, no lie. Jinyoung should call himself lucky.” The smile on Y/N’s face grows bigger as her cheeks red up. At first, she enjoyed the nice comments, but it started to make her feel uncomfortable. Y/N is used to receive compliments for being smart or being good in something. But to receive a compliment regarding the way she looks is still not very familiar to her. “I would hug you, but your boyfriend doesn’t seem to like it so... Where did the others g o ?”

“Well, I would have seen it if I would have not been pulled to the side.” Her side eyeing at Jinyoung makes  him  laugh. “Sorry.”

“That must mean your bodyguard is not doing a great job on keeping an eye on you.”, Namjoon says with a smirk. “Told you. No need to dress up, you look good anyway.” Whilst Namjoon takes a sip from his cup, Jinyoung throws a warning look at Namjoon. “Uhm, I think someone just screamed my name. See you around!”

“What was that about?”, Y/N wonders. She did not see the look he threw at Namjoon as she  talked with  Jackson who is still looking if he can find his friends.

“Does it matter? I should get you something to drink...”, Jinyoung suggests.

“What I forgot to say ; BamBam said I should tell him you are here as soon as you are here. He wants to play a drinking game with you, shall I tell him or shall we make him think that he found you first?”

“Do not tell him yet. He will find me eventually.” , she answers.  Jinyoung hugs her from behind as  he places his  head on her shoulder. “Already tired?”

“No. Just wait ing until you are done talking.”

“ We are done. I am all yours now .”, she tells him as Jackson starts to walk off. “Where are the drinks? I am thirsty.” Jinyoung moves to her left side and  changes the hand he holds  to lead her into the kitchen.

“I guess you want something easy?”

“Is there anything which you could categorize as an ‘easy drink’?”

“Fine.  B ig mouth, you will drink what I give you.”

“ Big mo u th?” Jinyoung only nods as she repeats his words. “I let you have that one. Bu t  give me  not hing too strong. I do not want to have to throw up.”

“Uh, such an unattractive picture I have in my head.”, he jokes as he places the bottle on the kitchen counter in front of him. “ Were the cups not over here a minute ago?”

“Since we came here, they were standing over there.”, she answers as she takes two cups. Y/N places the cups directly in front of him. “Do not overfill them. I might not like  what you put in mine .”

“Nobody likes rum. Therefore, I mix yours with coke.”

“Coke with rum? Sounds weird.”

“Yeah, that is why everyone calls it the girly drink. No one understands the drink ’ s taste as much as we boys do not understand you girls.” Y/N laughs at his lame joke as her eyes move to the kitchen door. As the door opens, she can see Yugyeom walking together with Jungkook.

“I hope he will not see her...”, Y/N mumbles.

“Who should not see who ?”

“You did not hear about Yugyeom’s problem?”

“Which problem?”

“He told us at  Jaebum’s house that he went on some dates with a girl who only wanted to make her ex-boyfriend jealous at that time. She did not care about him. She used him only to get her ex back. ”

“Let me guess, that  the  girl is now together with her ex again?”

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“Well, the boys talked about  their sport mate’s girlfriend who’s such a snake. I did not know that  Yugyeom was a part of the triangle.”

“I swear to god, if she hurts him - ” Y/N stops herself from talking before she would regret to say something she might not mean. Jinyoung nods as he hands her the cup. “Thanks.”

“You are very welcome.” Jinyoung takes a sip from his cup and places it back on the counter. “I did not know  that you can be this aggressive .”

“Aggressive? Me? Wrong. I am only protective.” Her eyes wander to their cups.

“If you say so. Let’s see what alcohol does with you. Cheers.”

“Why is yours...? Did you fill yours with water as I looked away?” Jinyoung bursts in laugh ter as he holds his cup to her.

“If you seriously think so, taste the water.”

“Why should I taste water?” Jinyoung shakes the cup slightly in his hands to show her to take a sip. “Fine, I will take a sip. It smells weird though. ” She takes the cup from his hand and takes a big sip.

“You should try it, not empty it.”, he jokes as he sees her struggl ing to swallow it. “Are you alright?”

“How can you drink that? It is so disgusting.”

“Well, now we know that Vodka is not for you.”, he comments mockingly. 

“It’s just uh!” She takes  her  cup and takes a smaller sip from it. “Well, more coke and it would taste better.”

“Then you would need no rum if you would use more coke.”

“Still better than Vodka...” Her neck is still burning a little as she takes another sip from her drink.

“There you are! I see you are not drunk yet.”, Jungkook notes as he walks pass them to get a bottle from the other counter.

“I hope you have not seen the devil yet?”, Y/N questions Yugyeom as he still looks sad. 

“No. I do not even want to look at her.”

“And he should not do it. He deserves better than that.”, Jungkook adds.

“You  will  stay by his side? Did you not find a girl yet to make out with?” Y/N’s eyes move quickly to Jinyoung. “I guess you were told about us, how we are when we are drunk by  Hoseok ?”

“No. I mean I only know about Jaebum and Youngjae...”, she lies. “Does that mean our Jungkook makes out with girls on parties?”

“Before Jinyoung has a chance to tell you a lie. I might make out with some girls for whatever reason, but it is meaningless. Your boyfriend on the other hand is embarrassing-”, Jinyoung interrupts Jungkook with a warning hand in the air. Y/N cannot see it, because Jinyoung moved  his hand  behind her back to warn Jungkook.

“I already heard it! A touchy and flirty kind. I know.”, she says accidentally. Jinyoung looks surprised at he r whilst she sucks her own lips in as she curses herself for not keeping her mouth shut .  When she feels his eyes on her, she knows she has been caught lying.

“Did you not just say that you only know about Jaebum and Youngjae …?”

“Did I not say your name? Oops...” With those words she finally made Yugyeom smile. “Look, pretty boy still owns his smil e !” Jungkook immediately slaps Yugyeom’s shoulder as he hands him a cup.

“Drink it down. Cheers!”, Jungkook says as he takes his own cup in the air. “Y/N ?  Jinyoung? Up the cups!” Both nod as they hold the cup to the theirs before they take a sip themselves. 

“Oh, look who we are having here?”, an unknown boy says as he enters the kitchen. His eyes scan her body up and down in a way which makes her uncomfortable . That her friends look at him like he should leave, does not bother him at all.

“Stop looking at her like that! Have a bit more respect.”, Jinyoung scolds him immediately when he has enough of him looking at her like he would want to eat her.

“As you would not check the girls out that you see.”

“I can control myself, that’s the difference.”

“Are you saying th at because this girl is standing next to you?”

“I told you to not look at her like that!”, Jinyoung says as he sees the boy staring at her again.

“I would not like it either if  someone stares at a girl like that which I would mark as mine .” This boy takes a sip from his drink as he steps towards them. “Aren’t you the guy who made such screaming drama in the cafeteria?”

“Just shut up and leave. You are not worth my time.”

“That is your girlfriend? Must be true that she has sex with her friends.” Those words were painful but she tries to not look bothered on the outside. Jinyoung on the other hand seems angry about this stupid rumor which seems to be still going around. Jungkook and Yugyeom notice that Jinyoung’s hands turn into fists and his face expression looks as he is about to explode.

“You better shut your mouth!”

“Jinyoung, let him talk! Let’s go somewhere else.”, Y/N suggests as she grabs him by his lower arm. “Jinyoung, please?” Yugyeom takes his and Jungkook’s cup as Jungkook steps in front of Jinyoung.

“Let him talk! We all know better than him. Why do you care?” , Jungkook questions.

“No one should talk about her like that!” Finally , the boy left whilst shaking his head with a grin . He avoided Jinyoung’s eyes as he walked out.

“Jinyoung, we are here to party. I have not seen the others yet. Let’s find them, okay?” , Y/N suggests.

“Fine. It just pisses me off that this rumor still exists.”

“I know. I know. It annoys me too. ”

* * *

“I think it is time to go home, I feel drunk.”, Y/N states as she looks into Jinyoung’s eyes. It feels like she is sitting on his lap for hours. Lucky for them, they found a quiet spot in which they could be all by themselves. 

“No, you are not that drunk. You are finally not afraid to do more than just holding hands.”, Jinyoung says as he places his arm around her waist whilst he rests his head on the side of her neck. “I think it is cute when you are shy but it also feels good to have you this close to me.”

“I am surprised you did not kiss me yet.” Jinyoung moves his head away from her neck to look deeply into her eyes.  He tries to read her face. It makes him happy and nervous at the same time to think that their first kiss could happen tonight. Insecure if she would say the same thing if she would be sober crosses him mind.

“I s the alcohol speaking through you?”, Jinyoung asks. 

“No. Just me.  If you’d love me, you would have tried to kiss me…”

“ I thought you do not want me to yet.”

“Idiot.”

“Now I am an idiot?” She throws her arms around his neck and pulls him closer until their foreheads touch. “I thought you are alright with me only kissing you on your cheek?” He places his hand on the side of her cheek on which he always kisses her on. It is hard for him not just to kiss her lips. Especially when they are just a touch away. The fear of going to o fast for her and that she reminds her first kiss as a bad one, is  playing  in the back of his mind.

“No. I want more.” Just as Jinyoung  tilts his head to finally share their first kiss,  Jaebum appears.  Jaebum clears his throat loud enough to make them both close the ir eyes in disappointment. “Almost.”, she says as she looks back in his eyes.

“Hey, hey. I do not need to see it.”,  Jaebum says loudly. With a big sigh Jinyoung turns to  Jaebum .

“Then look away!”, Jinyoung says annoyed but Y/N already takes his hand off her face as she sits straight up. “Ignore him! Y/N, come on.”

“I would like our first kiss to have a little more privacy.”

“Thank you. Thank you for your politeness.” , Jaebum intervenes.

“What do you want, Jaebum?” Jinyoung’s voice sounded annoyed. His arm is still around her waist as he picks his drink up again.

“I will bring her home, now.”

“Do we already have to go?” , Y/N wonders.

“See, that is what I meant with I am happy that I do not have any siblings.” Jaebum shakes his head as he looks at Jinyoung. “Could you explain to her that she has to go, now.”, Jaebum says as Jinyoung puts the drink down again just to show her to get up. He gets up immediately after her. “Thanks. Let’s go, Y/N.” Jinyoung takes her hand and walks past Jaebum. “What do you think you are doing?” 

“I am going with her. I will stay at your place tonight.”

“I do not think that we  have  discussed this? Where do you  even  want to sleep? I only have the couch left...”

“He can hug me to sleep.”, Y/N suggests as she starts to hide her face behind  Jinyoung’s upper arm.

“How much did you give her to drink?”

“Not my fault. She said she can take more than Jungkook. Th e n she wanted to test all kind of alcohol together with  Yugyeom . I guess she knows her limit hopefully now.”

“Doubt that.” Whilst they walk through the living room to say goodbye to the others. When they say their goodbyes , they can see a girl who is in a verbal fight with  Yugyeom .  Jaebum sighs as he notices the girl. “That is the girl  Yugyeom spoke about.”  Jaebum’s words ring in Y/N’s ear. Almost automatically she lets go of Jinyoung’s hand and walks directly to  Yugyeom . “Y/N!” She ignores  Jaebum calling for her as she sees that this girl is raising her hand as she would want to hit him. “Let’s hope she will not start a fight.” Jinyoung narrows his eyebrows at him. “Oh , come on! It would be a classic first party  for her.”

“I will not let her get in a fight.”

“Sure. That is why you let her walk right to the disaster.” Jinyoung shakes his head whilst he walks closer to the scene . Jaebum looked around just to find Jin and Jimin watching the scene too.

“He left the party! Come on, we had so much fun!”, the girl says to Yugyeom as she tries to pull him closer by his shirt repeatedly. It is obvious that Yugyeom does not want her to touch him like that but her hands keep moving along his chest. Yugyeom takes her by the wrist to  put her hands off his chest.

“How often should I tell you ? I do not want you anymore! You played me and now you want to pretend like nothing happened?”

“I can be yours whenever he has no time for me. You still want me, be honest! You cannot say no to me.” When he lets go of her wrists, she tries to get on her toes to kiss him. To see how this girl is treating a friend of hers like that, makes her blood boil. Especially since  s he realized that  Yugyeom is  calmer when he is drun k .

“He does not want you anymore! You little  bitch , leave him alone!”, Y/N intervenes. “Who do you think you are to treat Yugyeom like that?”

“Excuse you ? I do not even know you. It is none of your business!”

“None of my business? Wrong. It just became my business. ”

“Yugyeom, tell this ugly thing to move out of my sight before I damage her face.” Yugyeom tries to put Y/N to the side but she only pushes him away and steps in front of him. “Huh, now I know why I know you! Are you jealous that he might had more fun with me than with you?”

“Our friendship does not matter to you! It’s so none of your business. You have no meaning to him anymore. Get it in your brain.” The girl pushes Y/N that hard, that she almost falls over  the table next to the couch  but Yugyeom caught her quickly.

“Y/N let it be.” ,  Yugyeom whispers into her ear. “Do not get into a fight!”

“No , I won’t . I am just getting started.”, Y/N  explains  as she stands in front of her again. “You seriously want to fight me?” In that moment, some other friends arrive to the scene. She can hear them talk but she chooses to ignore them. Even when they say her name, right now, she does not care. Her eyes wander to the cup on the table a few times before she takes it in her hand.

“As you would stand a chance against-” The girl stops her talking immediately as a drink lands in her face.

“You better leave! No one wants you here.”

“What is wrong with you?”

“With me?  There are too  many to count them all .” As the girl sees Jackson, she turns to him. 

“You seriously let her do this to me? I cannot believe you invited someone like her! ”

“She had a good reason, I guess. You can leave now . Your show is over. ”, Jackson says as he looks over to Y/N with a sarcastic smile.

“If my boyfriend finds out what she did to me at your party, he will make yours and your friends' life miserable. Football training will not be the same anymore !”

“It is time that you leave.” Once more she looks back at Y/N before she looks to Jackson. “As soon as these photos make their round, he would be an idiot to keep you.” She does not look back at Y/N nor at Yugyeom before she storms out. “Next time, do not do this at my house. I do not want to clean this mess.”

“Really? It was fun though…”, Y/N jokes.

“You truly threw a drink in her face! I thought your words were empty words.”, Jaebum confesses.

“Stop liking it that much.”,  Jin comments. “I cannot believe you through a drink in her face. .. ”

“I said I would.”, she says with a wink. “Felt good. Maybe I should look for her at every party I go...”

“You can stop now!”, Jinyoung says as he takes her hand in his. “ It’s time you get some sleep before you come up with another idea .”

“Wait a moment.”, Yugyeom says. “Why did you intervene, Y/N? I would have been able to handle it on my own.”

“I know. I just had another reason to do that too.”

“Which would be?”

“I have sport class with her and every girl who does not wear sport clothes from a well-known label... Well, let’s say we all dislike her.”

“Next time, leave it up to me. I do not need a girl to defend me.”

“Promise.”, she says as a yawn escape her lips. “Can I go to bed now?”  Jinyoung pulls her closer to place a kiss on her head. Slowly her arm moves up to wave goodbye to her friends. 

“I said that at least ten minutes ago.”, Jaebum adds annoyed.  “Let’s go .”

“Bye boys! See you around!”, Y/N yells as she turns her back towards them. Once in front of the door, she stops walking. When they notice that she had stopped walking, both of them turn to her.

“Why did you stop walking? Did you forget something?” , Jinyoung wonders.  She shakes her head as a response.

“Someone has to give me a piggyback ride! I cannot walk anymore...”, Y/N complains.

“You only walked out of the house. Come one!”, Jinyoung says mockingly.  “It’s not funny.”

“Uhm, Jinyoung. Give her the piggyback ride. We won’t get to my house if she continues that …”

“Why should I give in?”

“ Jinyoungie ? Piggyback!” Jinyoung shakes his  head as she talks like a baby.

“Hey, you wanted to  be her boyfriend than act like one.”

“Being a boyfriend does not mean I have to carry her on my back for over  thirty minutes.”

“Oh no, it does.” Jaebum has his hands crossed in front of his chest as he waits for Jinyoung to carry her home.

“Jinyoungie! Hurry, I cannot stand any longer. I feel dizzy…”

“Fine. Get on my back.” Jinyoung tells Y/N as he places himself lower to make it easier for her to get on his back. Y/N immediately throws her arms around his shoulders and places her head on his left  shoulder .  “Are you so tired?” Both boys start to laugh in unison. “Uhm, Y/N?” When she does not respond, Jaebum checks on her. He snaps his fingers next to her ear but she shows no sign of reaction.

“ Yeah, she is asleep.”

“That happened quickly.”

“ Well, your girl. Your problem.”

“You really are a kind of friend, you know?”

“Thanks. I appreciate your  sarcasm.” Not even ten minutes later, Jaebum notices that Jinyoung starts to struggle. “Don’t fall over with her on your back.”

“Can’t we take a taxi or a bus?”

“What do you think will a taxi driver or a bus driver say if we get into their vehicle like that ? Two boys and a girl who looks asleep ?”

“I see your point.” He jumps once to  get a better hold on her on his back. “Damn, she is getting heavier.”

“Don’t you ever tell her that!” , Jaebum warns.

“Do you think I am suicidal? ”

* * *

“Where are your keys?”, Jinyoung asks as they made it to Jaebum’s front door.

“Just take her  back! I do not want you to get your hand into my pocket.”

“So, your jeans you say?”

“Jinyoung! I am warning you!” Jinyoung laughs before his  he puts his hand in Jaebum’s pocket to check  for a key. “Okay, that is it! I swear I will kill you!”

“There it is!”,  Jinyoung says with a grin on his face as he shows him that he had found the key. “Do not look at me like that! How were you supposed to give me the key when you are carrying her like that?”

“I would not have taken her if you would have not almost fallen into the rose bushes with her on your back. If you would have just scratched her, she would have  come  after us.”

“I was just feeling a little dizzy.”

“Of course. It was not the alcohol, right? I will never ever bring her to a party when she stays at my place again. I truly mean never ever again.” Jinyoung laughs one more time before he tries to unlock the door. “Put the key in correctly! You are not that drunk.”

“Even if, I know how to unlock  a  door. I just think it is the wrong key…”

“I only have this pair  of keys on me. Know what? Take her!”

“No. Just a moment. I got it !”, he tells Jaebum as he unlocks the door.

“ It only took you five minutes to do a job of thirty seconds …”, Jaebum mumbles as he walks past him . “Lock the door.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Put the keys on the counter and follow me.” Jinyoung nods as Y/N starts to wake up. “Are you finally awake?” Y/N moves her head up and down along his shoulders. Jaebum felt the movements and started to smile to himself. “I hope you did not pretend to be asleep.”

“No.  I only closed my eyes for five minutes.” 

“Uh huh.” , he answers as he brings her to the guest room. Once in the room, he places her on the guest bed before he stands up next to Jinyoung.

“Jinyoungie! You are here with me? ” Her words hard to understand  as she sounded sleepy.  “Hug me!” Jinyoung smiles as he takes her shoes off .

“At first we must take your shoes off and then I’ll come back to you.”

“No! You stay here with me .” Whilst Jinyoung tries to remove her shoes she keeps moving her legs as she tries to find a comfortable position to sleep in.

“It will take longer  if you keep moving.”

“Sorry.” Jinyoung takes her shoes before he pets her hair.

“It’s fine. I’ll be right back.” Y/N mumbles an okay before the boys leave her alone in the room. The closer they come to the wardrobe the more Jaebum feels like it is his place to say something. 

“I do not think this is a clever idea.”

“What do you mean?”

“ I mean I do not think it is a good idea if my mom comes home and she wants to check on her, expecting her to lie alone in there but finds you in there too.”

“Your  mother ne ver said that I am not welcomed to stay.”

“You can sleep in my room, in the sleeping bag as you sometimes did.”

“Jaebum. We are only cuddling to sleep. Nothing else.” Jaebum’s face becomes red as he listens to Jinyoung. “What are you thinking about!? You are completely red.”

“Nothing. But see it from my mom’s side.”

“I will not use a blanket , th e n your mother will see that we did nothing that you are thinking of.”

“Fine. Any following troubles  are on you.”

“What bad consequences could follow?”

“That you are not allowed to stay here anymore when she’s here or she is not allowed to stay anymore at all . Or nobody is allowed to stay over  the  night anymore.”

“ I ' l l explain it to her.”

“Oh really? You know that my aunt and my mother will work tomorrow in the bakery together? You know that my aunt is a good  friend of her mother? ”

“What you are saying is?”

“Even if you convince her to not say anything to her mom, she might say it accidentally.”

“I see.” Jinyoung’s mind starts to rotate about the words  Jaebum said. “I’ll stay in your room. But I just want to say  good night.”

“No good night, only looking and walking.”

“Your house, your rules.”


	12. Chapter 12

Jinyoung is waiting . Waiting  until he is  really  sure that  Jaebum  is asleep. What he does not know is, that  Jaebum  is doing the exact same thing.  Jaebum  turns his back on Jinyoung who still pretends to sleep  to test what Jinyoung seems to have planned. Not even a minute later he can hear how Jinyoung tries to get up.

“Go to sleep. I do not want you as a walking ghost in my home.”, Jaebum  mumbles  quietly .

“Uh, you are awake too?”

“I am awake to make sure you are not leaving your damn spot. You should not have a reason to be awake. ”

“But I do.”

“You have no reason. Do not even think about finding a damn excuse.”

“Great. Do you want to control my mind Einstein?”

“You will not shut up anyway.”, Jaebum comments as he  sits up. “What is your damn reason?”

“I need to  g o to the toilet.”, Jinyoung lies.

“Why do you not just go  the toilet then?”

“You would say it is  just  an excuse  to go to her room.”

“Well, yeah. Obviously.” Jinyoung sighs as he looks up  Jaebum . “What? Go, use the toilet. If you are not back quickly ,  I will check.”  Jaebum  snuggles back underneath his blanket  and  takes his phone which lies next to his pillow  to  turn the timer on six minutes. If he should fall asleep again, he would wake up because of the timer. Jinyoung gets up slowly and looks over to  Jaebum  once again.

“Jaebum ?” , Jinyoung whispers to make sure if Jaebum can hear him.

“What? I will not come with you!”,  Jaebum  mumbles annoyed. “Just go. You have six minutes to be back.” Jinyoung nods to himself as he leaves the room. He tries to walk as quick as he can to  the  guest room to spend as much time as  he  might could have  with Y/N . When he arrives at her door, he looks at her for a few seconds. The way she lies in her bed, makes him laugh.  For some reason, he cannot get the smile off his face. Y/N looks to o  adorable for him. She looks like a starfish whilst she sleeps. Arms are up on each side of her head and her legs are stretched. Jinyoung yawns as he feels his own tiredness makes it harder for him to keep his eyes open. As he is about to walk inside the room, he can hear the key turning at the front door. Jinyoung immediately put his foot out of her room and walks towards the bathroom. As he keeps walking, he can hear somebody  walk ing right behind him.

“I thought you would go directly to bathroom ? ”, Jaebum  wonders as he closes her bedroom door.

“I only took one look and now I am on my way to the bathroom.  You said I have six minutes! ”  As Jinyoung starts to walk, Jaebum follows him. “Are you going with me into the bathroom?”

“Do not be ridiculous . I need water from the kitchen.” , Jaebum answers as he walks past him.

“Uh. I heard the lock on the front door, maybe you should check.”  Jaebum turns his head towards the door . 

“It will probably be only my mom.”, he assures with a smile. When he sees that Jinyoung is going to the bathroom, he walks to the front door instead. The door is unlocked and his mom's shoes are already lined up with his shoes. Jaebum  locks the door before he  makes his way to the kitchen in hope to find her there. As soon as he walks around the corner, he sees his mother with a big glass of water in her hand. “Hey mom! How was work?”

“Awful as usual.”, she says as she gives him a hug.  “ Listen, I really would like to talk to you-"

“But you are exhausted and you need  to catch as much sleep you can have.”  Jaebum's mother smiles as she nods. She takes a  big sip from the glass and puts it into  the sink.

“ You know me to o  well.”

“If it is too much, I can quit the after-school activities and find  a part time job again.  I wouldn’t mind.”

“No. You did it the last two years. I should not make you work. I am your mother and I will make sure we have what we need.”

“We could move to a smaller place. That would be okay for me.” His mother puts her palm  on his cheek.

“I told you, I will make sure we keep this apartment. No matter how, I will make us a nice living within this apartment.” Jaebum starts to look down as he feels helpless to be not able to help his mother somehow.

“Aunt said that she would let you be their co - owner of the bakery if you want to earn more . It would only be a start.. .”

“Do not think so much. You are a child.  My child.  Enjoy your youth. ” Jaebum looks slowly back up to her as he knows where this conversation is heading to. “ When you will become a parent one day, you will have enough thoughts and doubts about decisions.  But now, I need you to be a good son and write good marks and to make me feel as I did no mistake by raising you the way I did. ” , she says as she  is leaving the kitchen. “ I almost forgot!  How was the party?”, she asks as she looks back at him when she stopped at the door frame.

“It was nice.  Y/N drank too much but she is asleep now.  Jinyoung is also here  and h e will stay in my room.”

“Alright. I trust you two to do no nonsense.”  Jaebum  smiles at her to assure they do not have anything in mind. His mother does not have to past her room to get into hers but  Jaebum  does. Whilst he walks along the hallway, he looks at Y/N's door. It is still closed but something inside of him tells him to take a look. He opens the door and what he sees makes him  want to  check just in case his mother sees him walking in. When he is sure that his mother won’t come towards him, he walks into her room quickly but leaves the door open a little bit.

“Jinyoung!”,  Jaebum  scolds as quiet as he can. His voice sounded mad but strict. When Jinyoung doesn't react, he walks to him and starts to shake him.  “Jinyoung!” He starts to shake his body stronger which lies right next to hers.  Jaebum  tries his best to not wake her up but Jinyoung is starting to go on his nerve. Jinyoung only lies on the edge of the bed as she is still spread like a starfish. “Get up!” Jinyoung pushes  Jaebum’s  hand off him as he tries to go back to sleep. “You are not giving me another chance than do that.” To Jinyoung surprise,  Jaebum  says nothing as he walks towards the door to open it a little further. Jinyoung feels how  Jaebum's  hands are grabbing him by his upper arm. With one fast movement, Jinyoung falls out of the bed. The sound of him falling out of the bed was loud enough to wake someone up.  Jaebum  looks up to see if Y/N is still asleep or if she has woken up by the sound of Jinyoung falling out of the bed.  But t here is no sign at all that she would have recognized what happened. Y/N still looks peacefully whilst she continues to sleep.

“Dude! What are you-" Jinyoung cannot finish his  sentence  because Jaebum  starts to drag  him out of the room by his wrist. “Are you for real?”

“Be happy I only do that. ”, he answers as he drags him back into Jaebum's bedroom.

“I can walk, you know?”

“Did not look like you were trying to.”

“Maybe you could have asked me to?”

“Asking does not help a lot when it is about her…”

“Come on!” Once in the room,  Jaebum  drops Jinyoung’s arm to the ground.

“ You stay here. My mom is already home.”  Jinyoung nods as he stares onto the ceiling.

“Good night.”, Jinyoung says in a playful voice.

“ Sleep.  Just close your eyes and sleep!”

“You are impolite.”

“You are annoying.”

“Good night?”

“Good night.”  Jaebum  turns himself to have an eye on Jinyoung. He can hear Jinyoung moving but decides to watch him first. “Put your ass back to the ground and go to sleep! I swear  i f you bring her into troubles…!” Jinyoung sighs as he lays back down.

“Fine. I will try to fall asleep  here .  Right on this spot. ”

“ Good.”

“Could you please stop staring at me?”

“Nope. When you are asleep, I will go to sleep too.”

“Night.”

“Night.”

* * *

Y/N star t s to awake slowly as the sun shines through her window. As much as she used to love the sun, she hates it now. Her hands are on her face as she turns her body to put her face into the pillow. Y/N sighs until she is used to the light in her room. Her throat felt so dry, that she needed to cough. As she sits up her eyes move along the floor, where she finds a water bottle. She picks it up quickly, to her surprise it is a bit cold. She opens and closes her eyes a few times to wet them. The head of hers start to feel heavy and the room feels as she would be turning. She is sure, she is still sitting calmly even though it feels like the room is turning  repeatedly . Feeling the dizziness at its finest, she starts to take a few fresh clothes from her suitcase and makes her way to the bathroom.

* * *

The closer she came to the kitchen, she can see that  Jaebum  is already awake and is already trying to be almost okay. The alcohol is definitely showing its ugly side by now on his face .   “Oh look, the princess is awake.”,  Jaebum  says jokingly. Y/N walks towards  him  emotionless without saying a word. She wears the new clothes she had picked and her hair is slightly wet.

“Did you just take a shower?”

“No, I googled  for  the closest rain to my location, then I drove there and then I held my arms up to take a shower in it.”

“Sorry for asking.”  Jaebum starts to laugh along with Y/N.

“Honestly, I could not stand the smell of alcohol any longer.”  Jaebum  tilts his head and puts on a sympathy face expression. “No need to pretend…”  Jaebum  rolls his eyes as he turns on the coffee  machine  whilst  Y/N takes a seat.

“How are you? Did you sleep well?”, Jinyoung asks as he walks up to her.  He puts his hands on her shoulder and kisses her cheek softly.

“I guess. My head hurts . It makes me feel dizzy .”

“If you feel sick you know where the bathroom is .”, Jaebum adds.

“I am not feeling sick! It is that just my head hurts so bad.” Y/N e xplains . Her palms are on each side of her head as she rests her head  within them . Jinyoung sits down on the opposite seat from her at the table. The sound of the doorbell  becomes hearable  through the room. The sound was a too high tone which makes Jinyoung shake in pain for a second as his headache becomes worse. “Did your mother forget her keys?”, Y/N mumbles.

“No, she did not. She already went to the bakery earlier today. I will be right back.” For whatever reason, he takes his phone and walks towards the door. He looks at his phone to see how early it is, that is when he sees a message from Jimin on his phone. He takes his keys from the counter and unlocks his door. “I did not expect you to come here.”

“Yeah, I can see that on your face. ”, Tae comments.

“I have sent you a message that we would come.”, Jimin says as Tae holds up a bag with muffins. “We brought something for our new drinker.”

“Why do I feel like you only want to see how bad she is doing?”

“Why would we do that?”

“Maybe because you like to see how bad people do after a night  o ut since it seems to have no effect on you  two .” Jimin and Tae look at each other for a moment as no one knew what to say.  Tae wants to answer, just as Jimin does but both find nothing to say.

“Okay. You caught us in a lie.” Jaebum sighs as he looks at  Jimin .

“ Can we still  have  breakfast at your place? You di d  not text him back.” , Tae comments .

“Come in.” Jimin and Tae walk directly towards the kitchen  after taking off their shoes,  to find her and Jinyoung laughing  about something w hilst she is still holding her head in pain.

“You should not be that fine!”, Jimin says. “Y ou should not be doing this well! Y ou drank so much with  Yugyeom  last night …”

“First of all, hello.”

“Hello.”, both say in unison  whilst they wave a hello.

“I only have a bad headache, otherwise I am fine.” Y/N’s eyes wander to the bag in Tae’s hand. “Please say there are some muffins in there.” Tae starts to grin as he holds his hand out flat towards Jimin. Jimin looks at his hand before he looks up  at  Tae. A long deep sigh with a mumbled curse is leaving his lips quietly. Jimin takes out his purse and gives Tae ten bucks.

“I hope you are happy! How could you even know that?”, Jimin questions. Tae starts to laugh as he puts the money in his pocket. The others follow their actions  without saying a word .

“I told you that she loves muffins so much that she would even eat it after a night out.” Y/N’s mouth opens slightly as she starts to understand the situation.  “Even if she would be drunk.”

“You bet about me?”, Y/N asks in a high tone.  “You seriously bet if I would eat muffins this morning or not?”

“Yeah. Something wrong about it?”, Jimin questions as he sits down.   Both avoid to look into her eyes. The heat that come from her speaks for itself.

“If something is wrong? That is a not serious question, right?”, Jinyoung questions. “You should have asked me too! I would have won th at  bet easily.” Jaebum steps backwards to the kitchen counter to stay out of the upcoming storm he fears that could be happening.

“Excuse me?”, Y/N says even louder. Her face expression looks very angry.  “I mean, excuse me!?” Her face expression shows how wrong it was from Jinyoung to say those words.

“Did I say it out loud?”, Jinyoung looks  a t his friends for approval.  “I did not mean to say it out loud. Sorry.”

“You! Forget it… I do not want to fight.  Especially when my head is about to explode. ” Y/N points at the bag  as she starts to feel hungry . “Open the bag. I want a muffin.” Y/N commands as she plays her fingers along the table.

“Blueberry? Vanilla? Choco late ?”

“Yep.” Tae starts to laugh as he sits down on the table. Jinyoung and  Jaebum  look amused as Jimin looks confused at her. Jimin looks at the bag before he looks at her again.

“Which one? Do you want the blueberry muffin ? The vanilla muffin? Or do you want the chocolate muffin?”

“ From each  one.  I want to taste them all!”  Tae puts his hand in front of his  mouth to stop himself from breaking into laughter.  Jimin looks stressed as he still does not understand her answer.

“You said you want one. One plus zero is not three.”

“Oh, did you not buy that many? ”

“ What the!  That is not the topic.”

“Then you must think that I am not capable of eating three muffins , right? ”

“That  i s not  the topic  either.”

“So, I can have three different kinds?”, she  begs in a cute way which makes Jimin  take a deep breath .

“N o. Pick one.”

“I don’t want to choose…” Jimin waited for a  minute  as she keeps watching Jimin taking out the three different kind of muffins. 

"I am done debating with you. You can have all three.”  Jimin is just about to pick them up to give it to her but her hands were much quicker than he expected.

“ Yey ! Thank you  very much .” 

“What about us? ”, Jaebum  questions as he watches Jimin placing the bag on the counter.

“Take yourself one or two.”, Jimin  comments as he sits down at the table. 

“Politeness is something I am missing lately…”  Jaebum takes himself a chocolate muffin before he also takes a seat by the table. It becomes quiet as everyone starts to eat.

“You are eating like a pig! Slow down!”, Tae says to Y/N.

“Are you talking to me?”, Y/N asks. “Do I look like a pig to you?” She sounded angry about the comment Tae made.

“I did not mean to hurt your feelings-” Y/N drops the muffin onto the table before she gets up.

“Y/N I did not mean it that way!”, Tae says apologetically but she does not listen to what he has to say and keeps walking away.

“Great! Did you really need to say this to her?”, Jinyoung scolds as he leaves the table to follow her.

“I really did not mean anything seriously! I just did not want her to choke on her food!”, Tae explains.

“You should have said it more carefully though.”, Jimin adds quietly. “She is still a girl.”

“I am not blind! Maybe we are not that kind of close as I thought...”, Tae admits to himself. A sudden slamming of the door gets their attention. “If she is not back in a few minutes, I will try to apologize to her.”

“Good luck!”, Jimin comments as he rolls his eyes.

* * *

The door closed almost right in front of Jinyoung’s face. “Y/N, can I come in?” Y/N does not answer, but he can hear someone giggling. Before he can even waste a minute thinking about it, Y/N opens the door.

“Come in, quick!”, she says as she pulls him in by his wrist.

“What is going on? I thought you were about to rip him into pieces...”

“I will not rip him apart because of that.” She leans against the door. “I only thought maybe we have some time for each other than.” Jinyoung starts to smile as he steps towards her.

“You truly need to be back in drama. Your talent is flawless.” He places a soft kiss on her lips as his hands rest on her waist. She moves her hands on each side of the neck to pull him down for another kiss.

“I know. I just wanted to be alone with you, at least for a minute.” Jinyoung pulls her closer until their  bodies  meet.

“Look who’s blushing!”, Jinyoung jokes as she becomes  redder  each second.

“Just shut up and kiss me.”

“Ay, ay captain.” Both laugh before their lips almost met again. The reason why their lips do not touch in the end, is the knocking from the door on which they are standing too close to, to ignore it. “So close...”, Jinyoung sighs as he opens his eyes. Slowly Y/N opens her eyes too. Another knock comes from the door.

“Guys! Can I come in?”

“Jaebum?”

“Yeah, it is still me!” Y/N and Jinyoung nod at each other before she opens the door. “We have to go to the bakery.”

“Now? Why?”

“My mother called me, but when I tried to call back, she doesn’t answer me. She sent me a message that I should go into the shop as both of them had to drive off. I don’t know, I have a weird feeling about.”

“Weird feeling? Maybe it is about the groceries again?”

“No. My mother does not drive with her because of damn groceries...”

“Let me just get my bag.”

“I see you two at the front door.”

* * *

Sweating from running  almost  the whole way, they finally arrive at the bakery. A few customers are standing outside, they are looking around until one customer recognizes  Jaebum  right away.  Jaebum  immediately unlocks the door and apologizes for being closed at the moment. His friends follow him into the building.

“Y/N can you help me out behind the counter? Jimin you too?” Both nod in agreement. “Could you two do the servings?”

“Sure.”, Tae answers. All five walk to the back of the bakery quickly to get their aprons. Once everyone in position, they start to get to work. It became really hard to keep an eye on every customer but luckily his friends helped him out. Everyone is so caught up into their work that no one realizes how late it had become at this point. 

“It’s already six pm?”, Jimin asks in disbelief as he looks at the clock on the wall.

“Oh. Well, I better lock the door before anybody else is coming in.”, Jaebum says in a hurry as he gets the keys from the room in the back of the bakery. Quickly he locks the door whilst his friends are looking for spots to sit down. “Thank you for helping me out! I really appreciate it!”

“Not a big deal.”, Y/N says as she looks out the window. “Where is your aunt  actually ?”

“I will try to call them.”  Jaebum  walks to the back of the shop to try to reach at least his aunt or his mother. 

“Hopefully no bad news.”, Jinyoung sighs.

“Why are you so negative?”, Tae questions.

“I told him to tell nobody, but his aunt’s cancer came back. I hope it has nothing to do with it.” Jinyoung looks nervous as he looks at his fingers. 

“What? Why did he say nothing? He knew he could ask us if she would have needed help in the bakery.”, Tae comments worriedly. 

“You know him. He only told me about it because he knows that I will not treat him like a wounded puppy because of it.”

“I hope you are wrong though...”, Jimin mumbles as he looks to the door which  Jaebum  had just walked through. The silence lasts a few minutes until  Jaebum  comes back with redden  eyes. When  they see his face, it becomes obvious that he might have cried. “ Jaebum , are you alright?”

“Yeah.”, he answers whilst he uses his sleeves to wipe his eyes. “I will see if I can get a payment for you or a for free sandwich at least.”

“No need to do so. We are friends. Not your aunt’s employees.”, Tae says with a wink to lift the mood somehow. Jaebum only nods without saying anything else. “We will just bring back the aprons really quick so we can leave.” Jimin collects the aprons and brings them to the back of the shop whilst Jaebum still did not move from his spot.

“Are you really okay?”, Y/N asks carefully. 

“Yeah, of course. I just want to go home right now.” Whilst they all leave the shop to lock the it, they can feel how heavy their shoulders become. Jaebum will not say that he feels sad or pain when there are more than two friends around. Therefore, the boys say no other word. Jinyoung gives Y/N a fast but quiet kiss to say goodbye. Jimin walks closer to Y/N and pulls her in for a hug.

“Try to figure out what’s wrong. I have a bad feeling but he will not tell us anything now.” Jimin puts his hands on her upper arm and looks into her eyes. “Okay?” She nods but looks quickly at  Jaebum  as he turns around. It looks like he notices nothing around him at this moment. Almost as he going into a  spiral  of thoughts.

“Guys, if it is okay, I would like to be alone.”,  Jaebum  requests quietly. It is not normal for  Jaebum  to be this quiet especially when he would go home.

“I understand.”, Y/N says as she looks to the ground.

“Not you. Where should you even go to? Let’s go, Y/N.” As soon he said that he starts to walk without paying attention if she is even behind him. She waves goodbye to the others and starts to follow  Jaebum  without saying a word on their walk to his apartment.

* * *

His apartment is quiet, too quiet. Some sobbing sounds are coming from their living room. What also makes her wonder,  Jaebum  is not calling for his mother. He only takes off his shoes off lazily as he walks towards the sobbing sound. But he suddenly stops at the doorframe. “Y/N, may you could go to your room? I have to talk something in private with my mom.”

“Yeah, of course.”  Jaebum  waited until she left before he sits down next to his mother. Whilst Y/N sits on the bed, she could not help but wonder what might have happened. She needed to go to the toilet, but what if  Jaebum  saw her walking around, would he think that she tried to hear their conversation, she asks herself. In the end, her bladder felt as it would be about to explode. She leaves the room as quiet as she could to walk to the bathroom. On the way to the bathroom she can hear them cry, but she decides to wait for  Jaebum  to tell her. As she is just about to open the bathroom door, she can hear Jaebum clearly.

“Why now? She said that she feels like she could win this battle again... What about the shop? The shop was her life...”,  Jaebum  asks as he sobs. The way he said it, makes her heart feel as a dozen of knives have been put into hers.

“I do not know anything right now. She said that the doctor told her that it looks like the cancer is not growing anymore. You know what she was like. Your aunt never told anyone if she was doing unwell.”, his mother explains.

“I hate it!”, he screams in pain.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. Let it out.”

Right in that moment, Y/N knew, she better walks into the bathroom quickly. As soon as she locked the door behind her, she takes out her phone and opens a new group chat without  Jaebum .

** From Y/N: **  Hey, no one is adding Jaebum! Understood?

** BamBam ** ** :  ** Why? Did you guys fight?

** Y/N: **  No! It is about what happened to him therefore I want to let you all know to do not go to his aunt’s shop and to do not talk with him about the bakery. But everyone, promise me first that no one will confront him about it?

** Jin ** ** :  ** Promise.

** Mark:  ** Okay.

** Jackson:  ** Okidoki.

** Namjoon:  ** Promise.

** Yoongi ** ** :  ** Okay

** Tae:  ** Okay, promise.

** Jimin:  ** I hope you figured it out! Promise.

** Youngjae ** ** :  ** Figured out what? Why are you two writing in riddles? Promise it to you too.

** Y/N:  ** No one is writing in riddles. Some promises have not been done yet... I can speak about it until everyone promised...

** Yoongi ** ** :  ** Delete those who did not answer and tell only us instead...

** Jinyoung:  ** Nice try,  Yoongi . But promise to you Y/N.

** Yugyeom ** ** :  ** Promise.

** Jungkook:  ** Promise. What’s going on?

** Hoseok ** ** :  ** Promise.

** BamBam:  ** Promise.

** Jungkook: **  Typical.  BamBam  must be the last one in everything... -_-

** BamBam ** ** :  ** Keep it down Jungkook. 

** Y/N:  ** Now that we are all here. I can start, listen.

** Hoseok ** ** :  ** Is it about what happened at the bakery?

** Jungkook:  ** What happened in the bakery?

** BamBam ** ** :  ** Seems like I am not the only one who is late all the time.

** Y/N:  ** Everyone heard about  Jaebum’s  weird behavior?

** Jimin:  ** We met up at the diner. I mean except of Jungkook.

** Jungkook:  ** Why was I not invited? 

** Tae:  ** I forgot to text you...

** Jungkook:  ** Typical! 

** Y/N:  ** Anyway. I think something must be wrong with his aunt. I heard his mother and him talk with each other about what they should do with the shop. They were also talking about the cancer of his aunt. But I could not hear their conversation any longer. 

** Jin ** ** :  ** You listened to their conversation secretly? So disrespectful...

** Y/N:  ** I did not mean to do so. I needed to go to the toilet, that is when I heard their conversation.

** Mark:  ** I hope you are not texting whilst you are  using  the toilet.

** Yoongi ** ** :  ** She might be a girl, but I think not even girls do this kind of things.

** Mark:  ** Now she is not texting. Told you, probably wiping herself right now  ...

** Jin ** ** :  ** You guys are disgusting...

** Namjoon:  ** Do we really need to discuss that...  Y/N, where are you?

** Y/N:  ** I am in his bathroom.

** Mark:  ** Knew it!

** Y/N:  ** Not doing it in the way you wrote. 

** BamBam ** ** :  ** I will ignore everything you just  wrote...  Y/N, do you think she is in the hospital?

** Y/N:  ** I did not listen in on purpose. It was an accident! I wanted to walk into the bathroom but then I heard their crying and sobs and then I could not help myself any other than to listen to their conversation. I did not hear where she is now.

** Jinyoung:  ** Poor  Jaebum .. His aunt meant a lot to  him...

** Youngjae ** ** :  ** We do not even know what is truly going on... Maybe she is just hospitalized like  BamBam  said...

** Y/N:  ** I hope so. I will turn this group chat on mute. Just that he does not wonder who I am texting with.

She turns the phone on mute without even reading any other messages which were sent afterwards. She puts the phone back into her pocket before she walks outside. “Oh my god! You scared me.”, Y/N confesses as she looks at Jaebum.

“How long have you been in there?”

“I just wanted to use the toilet but then I thought I might take a shower to free myself from the sweat but then I could not find any clothes in here which I could wear afterwards. And now here I am.”

“Uh, okay.” She wipes away the tear that starts to form at the corner of his eye. To her surprise, he does not push her away.

“If you need someone to talk to, you know where I am.” She hugs him with a strong grip, but he does not hug her back.

“It is fine. I just want to be alone. Need to collect my thoughts.”

“Okay.”  Jaebum  keeps walking until he is in front of his room. He does not close his door, but he walks into it slowly. Then she heard two ‘boom  boom ’ kind of sounds. To be sure he is alright, she walks towards his door to check on him. What she sees is,  Jaebum  kneeing on the floor. His sobbing sounds as he would be in a lot of pain and it becomes harder for her just turn around. Y/N says no word but knees down beside him.  Jaebum  looks to her knees but says nothing. No matter how hard he tries to stop his tears, they keep running down his cheeks. She turns her upper body more into his direction to face him more. Slowly she moves her arm around his neck to pull him in for a hug. “I miss her already.”, he mumbles as he starts to cry into her shoulder. The emotions of him, does have an effect on her. Her tears start to find their escape and they land on his shirt.


	13. Chapter 13

It has been at least ten minutes that Jaebum could not stop to cry. Ten minutes of Y/N trying her best to find the right words. She does not know if she should keep hugging him or if she should get up and get him something else instead. It makes her feel helpless and worried at the same time. The past ten minutes have been absolute silent. No matter what crosses her mind, it still does not seem good enough to cheer him up. When he starts to move away from her, she removes her arms from him. Y/N wanted to be sure that he is doing better after letting it all out but Jaebum avoids the eye contact which makes it harder for her to figure out what is truly going on inside. It only felt like a minute until he finally looks into her eyes. Surprised by her reddened eyes, he wonders why she feels this way even though she was just a customer who helped out once to his aunt. She tries her best to fake a smile which does not work out that well as it looks different in comparison to her real smile.  Jaebum could not even look at her fake smile for a second before he looks away. 

“Feels better to let it out, huh?”, she says to lift up the mood a little. “How are you feeling?” Jaebum's eyes look red and lightly swollen. At first, he did not recognize that she was watching him as he wipes his tears from his face. When he looks at her again, he sees the dried tears on her face. A little fresh tear is still in the corner of her left eye which she seems not to mind. 

“Honestly, I do not know how I feel nor how I should feel...” His voice sounds as he really means what he had just said. This slow talking and the breaking between the words make it clear, he tries to hide his feelings again. “You cried too?”, Jaebum questions as she wipes the tears off her face. 

“Yeah. It’s just… Whenever I see someone cry, I start to cry automatically.”, she answers as she uses her finger to remove any sign of the tears that she feels on her face. 

“I did not mean to make you cry. Sorry.” 

“It’s alright, do not worry about it. Friends help each other through hard times, I am here for you. You would be there for me too so…” Jaebum nods as he gets up to get the tissue box which lies next to his bed. He takes a tissue out of the box and holds the box towards her. “She meant a lot to you, didn’t she?”, Y/N questions as she takes a tissue. Jaebum nods as he sits down on the edge of his bed. 

“Yes.” Jaebum sobs before he looks at her again. “I asked you once if your father is abusive to you. Do you remember?” 

“Yeah, I remember.” Y/N does not spend a thought about what he had asked, she simply answered with whatever came to her mind first. She starts to realize what he said and what she had just answered and this makes her wonder why he said what he said. 

“There is a reason why I did not wait and asked you directly if your father does what I accused him of. I had to ask you that question because the way your father reacted, reminded me on my aunt’s former husband.” Jaebum takes a moment to breath before he continues. “He was so abusive and… My aunt used to cover up her bloody lip with red lipstick just like your mother did. The way he touched your arm and the sadness in your eyes looked similar to what I saw in my aunt’s eyes before.” 

“Oh.”, she says as she looks to the ground. “I guess, I understand why you asked me those questions... I am sorry she had to go through that. Nobody should go through that.”, Y/N says as she looks at her hands. Jaebum takes out his phone to write a text message. The message is directed at their group chat. This is also the reason why Y/N’s phone vibrates. In curiosity, she opens the message immediately. Y/N reads the message a second time before she starts to wonder why he wrote this message. “Are you sure that we should get ourselves whatever we want from her shop? You know we could help out this week.” 

“Most of her recipes are a secret. She never wrote them down and they are the reason why the shop has been successful. Without those… Forget it.”, Jaebum mumbles as he touches the back of his neck. 

“I am a good baker, maybe I-” His eyes suddenly look angry and he looks upset when he interrupts her. 

“I said no!”, Jaebum screams. Y/N looks depressed as he declines her offer even though she understands his emotional outburst. It would be a lie if she would say that his reaction did not hurt her. Y/N might not say something back at him but her face shows that he stepped over the line. His tongue moves quickly over his lips as he feels them dry up. “I did not mean to scream at you, I am sorry.”, Jaebum apologizes as he looks to the ground in shame about his outburst. 

“It’s fine.”, she assures him whilst he is getting mad at himself for screaming at her even more. Two knocks become hearable from the door frame of Jaebum's bedroom. It is his mother, leaning against his bedroom door with a purse in one hand and shoes in the other. His mother looks just as sad as Jaebum  does but she seems to hide it a little better than Jaebum could. 

“I see that you are in good hands.”, his mother states as she looks at them. Y/N starts to believe that she might have not heard his screaming. Otherwise she would have said something, Y/N thinks. Another thing that she notices is that his mother does not look as she would have been crying as hard as Jaebum did, but Y/N is sure that she must be wearing makeup to cover it up. Y/N puts a small smile on her face to reassure his mother that everything is alright. His mother returns a smile and nods. “I have to go, there are some paper stuff to do because of her death and….” The smile of his mother slowly disappears as she feels her emotions come up. She looks up for a moment as she would try to suck the tears back in before she puts a neutral look on her face. “Jae, my boss did not give me a vacation day for tonight's shift. Do you want me to cook something or do you want me to get you something for breakfast?” 

“Got it.”, Jaebum answers as he looks depressed to the ground. “I will stay at home.”, he declares as he looks up at her again. “I will find something in the freezer for sure.”  Jaebum tries the hardest to assure his mother that he will be alright but his mother waits for a few seconds if he would change his mind. 

“Alright. I see you guys later if I make it home before my shift but I see you the latest tomorrow. Do not forget to lock the door before you go to bed.” His mother waves her goodbye before she walks away from his bedroom. Jaebum puts the tissue box on the ground which brings her attention back to him. Y/N tries her best to read his face but he seems to fake his emotion once again.  

“I just want to take a nap. If you do not mind.”, he tells her quietly. 

“Uh, yeah. Sure.” Y/N gets up and is just about to leave the room as she discovers a sleeping bag in the corner of his room. Jaebum turns his body towards the wall as Y/N leaves his room. Almost out of the door, she turns around. “Tell me if you need something.” He does not answer her which is making her sigh as she leaves his room. She walks towards the kitchen to drink some water as she feels her throat starting to hurt because of the dryness. As Y/N takes the glass of water, she starts to think about his mother. How many jobs does she have just to make enough for their living, Y/N wonders. For whatever reason she turns to the fridge and looks through it whilst her thoughts stay by his mother. There is not much in the fridge that she could cook with. It almost reminds her on the empty fridge she was so used to after her father had passed away. If his mother barely makes any money even though she seems to have more than one job, do they even eat enough, she wonders. Jaebum always eats the food from the cafeteria but what does he eat at home if there is barely anything there, she asks herself. Y/N takes one look along the hallway towards his bedroom as she feels torn of respecting his wish of being alone or being with him as a friend even though he does not want her to do so. Just to be sure she walks back to his bedroom to see if he fell asleep already. When she sees that he is truly taking a nap, she walks back to the fridge and takes some ingredients for cooking out of the fridge. Thankfully, she finds everything that she would need. 

* * *

Once he fell asleep, Jaebum did not want to wake up from it. In his dream, he sees his aunt as she was taking care of Jaebum when he was a younger. Just a few years ago, but it still feels like yesterday when he had to wait outside of a courtroom with his aunt. He remembers his mother telling him that she will make sure that his father will not hurt him ever again. He also remembers the way she hugged his aunt and the way she had petted his head before she had to walk inside the court room. Multiple times, he heard his aunt say, that Jaebum’s mother will be out in a minute. What he did not expect is his father being taken away by handcuffs just a few minutes before his mother came back outside. His aunt did ignore his questions and said repeatedly that his mother will answer his questions. Jaebum accepted to wait for his mother to answer his questions later on that day. The smile on Jaebum’s mother’s face was huge when she walked towards them and the many times his aunt congratulated her for a win seems to be on replay in his dream. Almost as it would be in slow motion.  

A smell in the air gets Jaebum’s attention as he starts to wake up. It smells delicious almost as he would dive right into another dream but this is just not another dream. Still sleepy, he gets up to follow the smell. He becomes more curious each second whilst he follows the smell towards the kitchen. When he passes the guest room, he sees no sign of Y/N. As he continues to walk towards the kitchen, he starts to wonder if Y/N had ordered in. Jaebum stops to walk for a second to watch her cook but the curiosity makes him walk closer to her. “Are you cooking? I smelled something that lead me this way.”, he explains as he leans over to pan to take a closer look. “Looks good.” 

“I hope it is okay. I did not know if I was allowed to-” 

“It is okay. You should not be starving as our guest.” Jaebum lifts a corner of his lips to show her it is perfectly fine if she wants to do so. 

“I only cooked something I came up with in my mind. I made some vegetables with coconut-curry sauce and I made some spring rolls from your freezer. I hope you like it.” Jaebum nods and takes two plates to place them on the dinner table. “Do you want to eat now?”, she asks as she keeps on focusing on the food. 

“That is why I am preparing the table. Do you need a hand?” 

“Nope. Just bring the plates, I will put everything on the plates in the kitchen.” Jaebum does not discuss as he brings her the plates even though the plates where on the dinner table for less than a half minute. 

“I did not know that you can cook.” 

“Well, surprise.”, she jokes as she puts the food on the first plate. “Let's see if you like it afterwards too.” When she prepared the second plate, he brings the plates back to the dinner table. Y/N hurries around the kitchen counter to sit down on the empty chair on the opposite side of where he is sitting at. Jaebum takes a bite quickly. The fast chewing turns into slow ones until he does not chew anymore even though the food is still in his mouth. He raises an eyebrow and looks at her. “This bad?”, she questions as it looks like he seems not to like it. Jaebum swallows his food and licks his lip twice. She looks at her plate disappointed as she takes a bite herself to see if it tastes bad. 

“No, it is damn good!” 

“It does not look like you would truly like it.”, she answers whilst she tries to cool her mouth. Apparently, she did not wait long enough for the food to cool down a bit before she had put it in her mouth. “Argh!” 

“Are you okay?”, Jaebum asks as he tries to hide a laugh. 

“Just too hot.” Jaebum starts to laugh. He tried hard to hold back his laugh but he could not do it any longer especially when she starts to move like a fish who’s a dragon at the same time. His imaginary adds the smoke which comes from her mouth which makes him laugh even harder. “I will let you laugh about me being stupid.”, she says with a smile. When he makes the same face again after taking another bite, she narrows her eyebrows. “Why does it look like you do not like it even if you say you do?”, she asks as she finally swallowed her food. 

“I am just surprised that it tastes that well. Did you order in?” Y/N starts to laugh at his question. 

“Are you saying this because your face failed to hide the truth twice?” 

“No, not at all.” Jaebum looks around if he might could find any packaging which would show that she had ordered in but there is no sign of any packaging. Whilst shaking his head, he continues to eat. 

“Do you find any packaging around here? The ingredients are from your fridge by the way.” 

“Uh...” His fork moves quickly to give him another taste of the food in front of him. “Make sure to leave the recipe here. I got to try it myself.”, he requests with his mouth full. 

“You cook too? I did not know that you do too.” 

“Well, I guess we both learnt something about the other one.” Y/N nods as she continues to eat. “Is something left for another portion?” 

“Only a small amount. I did not make that much.”, she answers as her phone vibrates. She takes the phone out of her pocket and looks at the screen. “Uh.” 

“Uh? Must be your parents from the sound of it.” 

“No. It is Jungkook.”, she answers as she reads the message. “He asks me if he should come over with a few video games to distract you with. Do you want him to come over?” Jaebum starts to play with his fork within his food. It looks almost like a child who does not want to finish its meal. 

“Is it bad that I do not want to see them right now?”, Jaebum asks as he battles with himself. It feels wrong to decline a friend who wants to be there for him but at the same time it would make it worse once he would be by himself afterwards again, Jaebum thinks. “I rather be on my own.”, he lies. 

“No, it is not bad at all. I will just write him that you want to take a nap.” She starts to type that he does not know what he wants to do but that he asked her to decline Jungkook’s offer. Jungkook knew that Jaebum would have denied his phone call but that he would say no through Y/N surprised him. After finishing his meal, Jaebum keeps sitting at the table as he would want to say something. 

“Okay.”, Jaebum pronounces whilst he gets up. The okay sounded more like someone who made his mind up and confident rather than sad. She texts Jungkook if they want to come, they should come anyway. Her fingers are typing very quick whilst she hopes that Jaebum does not notice that she is writing a long message. When she puts a full fork is in her mouth, she sees that Jaebum is walking towards the wash basin. Maybe she should have not ignored his no and just tell Jungkook to not come over nor to send the others to Jaebum’s place instead, she thinks. 

“Not hungry anymore? A little should be left.” 

“No. You can have it if you like.”, Jaebum answers as he places the dirty dish in the wash basin. 

“Leave them there. I will clean up once I am done here.” 

“You are our guest this week. I will do it.” He takes the cleaning materials and starts to clean up. “That can distract me a little at least.” Y/N finishes her meal just as Jaebum finished the other dirty dishes. “Do you want to go out with the others?” Her eyes look surprised at him as she watches him cleaning up. Jaebum might not be looking at her but he sees her in the corner of his eyes. “I mean, do you not want to take the chance to hang out with Jinyoung or the others? Just to watch a movie or something.” If she would be honest, it would hurt him that is for sure. Since she knew that she will stay at his place, she thought about going on dates with Jinyoung but now, everything looks different. Jaebum looks as he is in so much pain that it would not feel right to leave him alone by himself.  

“No. Besides, what if a neighbor of mine would see me and ask my mother about it…”, she lies as she hands him her plate. 

“You are a horrible liar.” Jaebum cleans her plate quickly and turns off the water. He takes the kitchen towel to dry his hand when he leans against the kitchen counter. “It is fine. If you want to, just do it. Do not hold yourself back because you feel sorry for me. I am alright.” 

“Thanks. But I will stay in.” Just in that moment the doorbell rings. “Do you expect someone? Do you want me to check?” 

“Are you joking?”, he asks when he throws the kitchen towel on the kitchen counter. “I will go.” Jaebum pronounces as he walks towards the door. He opens the door quickly but now he wishes that he did not open the door at all. 

“We thought you might want a few of us here...”, Yoongi says. “Can we come in?” Jaebum nods with his head down as he lets them in. “Jungkook said you want to take a nap which is the reason why some said they would rather let you sleep.” 

“So, you want me to stay awake?”, Jaebum adds sarcastically. “Very kind.” 

“We got some snacks, games... Whatever you need for a distraction.” Mark shows him the bag with all the stuff in it. No word is leaving Jaebum’s lips as he opens the door more. “Maybe Jinyoung was right.”, Marks whispers quietly to Jin. 

“No. He just acts cold again, you know him.” Jin puts his shoes off and walks towards the kitchen. “Damn! I missed your cooking again?”, he questions as he sees Y/N packing the small amount of food which is left into a Tupperware that she had found. 

“Well, you are always a moment too late.” 

“Can you ever save some for me?” 

“Uhm, no. I do not think so but maybe one day.” 

“You have some leftovers in front of you.” 

“So?” 

“So? Do you not want to offer it to me?” 

“I did not cook it for you, I cooked for Jaebum. Maybe another day.” 

“At least one day...”, Jin jokes as he sees her smile. His laugh stops when he turns back to Jaebum. “Jaebum, do you want to play a video game or a card game?” 

“What are you asking him for? A video game of course.”, Mark says as he takes the bag from Jin’s hand. “Let’s see who is the best in the new game that Yugyeom got from his parents. Jungkook meant it is one of the best games Yugyeom owns.” 

* * *

“At least we finally found something that you are bad in!”, Mark comments happily as he beats Y/N in the same game again. “Do not be mad! This game is so much fun.” 

“Enjoy your win.”, Y/N says angrily. “I will beat you sooner or later. That counts for everyone in this room!” 

“Come on. It is alright to suck in something. We all suck in something.” 

“I do not suck in anything! This word has never been in my vocabulary.” 

“You are only good in things which you need to study...” 

“Not true at all!” 

“Let’s see. You had luck with bowling but I guess next time it will be horribly bad again. Typical beginner I would say. Then we have video games, sport, art-” 

“Alright. I got it!” Y/N pushes the controller onto Jin. “Take it before I break it.” 

“Somebody is a bad loser.”, Yoongi notes as he looks at his other friends. “Somebody else who would like to eat pizza?” 

“I am in!”, Mark screams happily. “What about you, grumpy loser?” 

“Only if Jaebum wants some too.” She walks back to her friends with a glass in her hands. As Jaebum does not answer her, she sits down on the armrest of the couch next to him. “Do you want to eat pizza too?” 

“I am not hungry. I will take a nap.”, Jaebum tells the others whilst he gets up. No one stops him as he walks away. 

“I told you, everyone should come but no. Let’s not pressure them to come with us...”, Yoongi converses annoyed. Jin immediately feels that the heat is directed at him. Feeling insulted, he turns to Yoongi. 

“What are you mad at me for?”, Jin asks in confusion. “Besides, why do you come up with pizza when we have so much food lying around?” 

“Makes me wonder why she was asking him.” 

“Is it my fault now?”, Y/N questions.  

“Never direct a question on the sad person... I thought you read a lot.” Her eyebrows narrow the longer she looks at him. “Maybe you only read the wrong things.” 

“Let’s not fight.”, Mark suggests. “Maybe we should leave him alone. We distracted him a little at least.” 

“Yeah, but the school holidays have just started and it looks like they will still talk about the bakery next week...” 

“If they have to sell it, it will hurt him badly.” 

“I understand it because of his aunt but do you think it will hurt him that badly?”, Y/N wonders. 

“Before his parents got divorced, they used to fight a lot. Whenever they fought, he ran into her shop. It is kind of his safety place.”, Yoongi explains. “He did not open up to us easily that is why we knew about the divorce almost a year after it happened.” Mark looks nervously towards the door in which he disappeared in.  

“Maybe it is better you hear it from him.”, Jin suggests.  

“I do not believe he wants to tell me about it.” 

“Well, then we should say nothing else either.” 

“Is it about this abusive man?” Their eyes widen when Y/N mentions the word ‘abusive’. “Why are you all looking at me like I am a ghost or something?” 

“I am surprised he told you about his dad.”, Mark whispers. “Jaebum usually does not talk about his dad.” 

“I was speaking about his aunt’s ex-husband.”, she explains. “Wait, what do you mean with his dad?”, she whispers back. 

“Idiot. You are simply an idiot to tell her.”, Yoongi scolds in a quiet tone. 

“How was I supposed to know that she is talking about him and not him?” 

“I cannot believe you are in the same class as me...” 

“Just shut up!”, Mark yells back in a quiet tone. “Why are you moving closer to me?”, he questions as he sees that she is moving closer and closer until she sits close enough next to him. 

“Because I need to know what you meant when you mentioned his dad.” Mark looks around in doubt if he should dare to tell her or if he should not say a word. Yoongi and Jin shake their head but Mark remembers Jaebum’s words, secrets should not exist within a friendship.  

“Fine. If he asks, you do not have this information from me, clear?” 

“Okay. Just tell me!”  

“When Jaebum was around eleven years old, he noticed that his father is mentally abusing his mother. His mother stood her ground and wanted to throw him out every time but she did not do it because of Jaebum.” 

“Just because of Jaebum? Why would she do that?” 

“She wanted that he grows up with a mother and a father but this is not what his father wanted. Jaebum asked his father once why he is the way he is to his mother like that. He told us that his father told him that he will leave her alone but therefore, he must bear the abuse. He does not know the reason to this day. Jaebum’s father did not do any mental abuse to him, but he started to abuse him physically. Jaebum was beaten up by him almost daily instead.” 

“That is why he never mentioned him...” Slowly she starts to understand from where this carrying behavior from Jaebum is coming from.  “Did he not tell anyone?” 

“Only his aunt.” 

“That is also why he was so close with his aunt.” 

“Both of them were too scared to tell anyone. His aunt asked him about it when she saw that his back started to bleed through his white shirt. That is when she told him about the abuse in her relationship, but she made it clear to him that if he tells his mom about it, she would go to a lawyer the very next day to have her husband out of her house.” 

“Did anyone else know?” 

“Except of his aunt? No. We only discovered it when we had a sports day in school.” 

“He said nothing?” All three of them shake their head without answering. “Did you not notice any changes in his behavior?” 

“We thought that he might be tired as it was around the time, he started to help his aunt with the bakery.”, Yoongi explains. “I still remember how his back looked like.” 

“How bad was it?” 

“His back was just black and blue. He even had bloody wounds from his father belt, at least we thought it was from a belt.” 

“Are you trying to say he got beaten up with items?” 

“He beat him up with whatever his father got into his hands. That huge wound was from a chair.”, Jin answers as his voice starts to shake. “He never said a word for weeks but he still continued to play football.”, Jin adds as he shakes his head. “He was so afraid to tell anyone especially because of his mom.” 

“Are you done talking about me?”, Jaebum questions as he suddenly stands in the room. Their faces turn immediately to him. “I want you all out. Now!


End file.
